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WHOSE  ASSISTANCE   IN  THE  PREPARATION 

OF   THIS  WORK 
HAS   BEEN   INVALUABLE 


HISTORY 


OF 


ENGLISH   LITERATURE 


BY 

REUBEN    POST    HALLECK,   M.A.   (YALE) 


NEW   YORK  •:•  CINCINNATI  •:•  CHICAGO 

AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT.  1900,  BY 
REUBEN   POST  HALLECK. 


ENTERED  AT  STATIONERS'  HALL, 


HAL.    ENG     LIT. 
W.    P.    6 


PREFACE 

IN  the  following  pages  the  author  aims  to  furnish  a 
concise  and  interesting  text-book  of  the  history  and  devel- 
opment of  English  literature  from  the  earliest  times  to  the 
present.  Especial  attention  is  paid  to  literary  movements, 
to  the  essential  qualities  which  differentiate  one  period 
from  another,  and  to  showing  the  animating  spirit  of 
each  age.  It  is  more  important  to  understand  the  rela- 
tion of  the  age  of  Pope  to  that  of  Wordsworth  than  to 
know  these  two  writers  merely  as  individuals.  It  is  bet- 
ter for  the  student  to  catch  the  general  drift  of  literary 
thought  than  to  study  a  large  number  of  comparatively 
unimportant  authors  and  to  ignore  the  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest.  The  majority  of  people  never  have 
time  for  the  study  of  any  but  the  masters.  Such  people 
need  a  guide  to  tell  them  what  to  select  from  each  age, 
just  as  much  as  travelers  in  England  require  a  guidebook 
to  indicate  the  most  interesting  places. 

The  writer  has  made  no  attempt  to  minimize  the  study 
of  authors  as  individuals.  One  of  the  features  of  this  work 
consists  in  devoting  a  special  section  to  summing  up  the 
general  characteristics  of  each  of  the  greatest  individual 
authors.  The  theory  that  it  is  wise  to  teach  the  general 
before  the  special  is  now  happily  going  out  of  fashion. 
But  the  moment  we  know  two  authors  we  ought  to  begin 
to  compare  them,  to  note  their  likeness  and  their  differ- 
ence. For  the  cultivation  of  the  thinking  powers,  the 

5 


6  PREFACE 

study  of  the  development  of  English  literature  may  be 
made  as  serviceable  as  mathematics.  The  individuality 
and  general  characteristics  of  one  author  present  them- 
selves in  sharpest  outline  only  in  comparison  with  those 
of  another  author.  For  instance,  Spenser's  subjective 
cast  of  mind  will  impress  the  student  more  forcibly  when 
contrasted  with  Chaucer's  objective  method  of  regarding 
the  world  (see  pp.  130-132). 

During  a  long  period  of  teaching  English  literature  and 
of  superintending  the  instruction  of  others  in  that  branch, 
the  author  has  repeatedly  found  that  pupils  who  have  not 
had  consecutive  instruction  in  the  history  of  English  litera- 
ture have  the  most  vague  ideas  of  its  development  and  of 
the  relation  of  its  parts.  Various  masterpieces  seem  like 
unconnected  islands  in  an  unexplored  ocean.  There  is  no 
way  of  making  these  masterpieces  seem  otherwise  except 
by  teaching  the  history  and  development  of  the  literature 
of  which  they  form  a  part.  Mental  association  is  based 
primarily  on  contiguity.  Ideas  must  be  grasped  by  the 
mind  at  the  same  time  before  they  can  be  known  to  be 
related.  It  is  difficult  for  young  minds  to  knit  into  one 
fabric  ideas  which  are  presented  at  considerable  intervals 
and  under  associations  so  different  as  occur  in  the  study 
of  various  masterpieces. 

In  so  far  as  the  limits  of  his  space  would  allow,  the 
author  has  endeavored  to  justify  his  criticisms  by  quota- 
tions that  show  the  characteristics  attributed  to  authors. 
Since  it  is  the  object  of  this  work  to  enable  students  to 
read  English  literature  for  themselves  more  intelligently, 
there  have  been  indicated  at  the  end  of  each  chapter  defi- 
nite Required  Readings  from  the  works  of  the  authors 
discussed.  To  guard  against  discouraging  students,  the 
writer  has  tried  to  call  for  no  more  than  they  may  be 


PREFACE  7^ 

expected  to  read  as  they  study  this  work.  There  have 
also  been  added  questions  which,  it  is  hoped,  will  stimulate 
pupils  to  do  some  original  thinking  and  to  make  a  com- 
parison of  different  ages  and  representative  authors. 

The  optional  list  of  Works  for  Consultation  and  Further 
Study  has  been  prepared  to  guide  those  who  wish  to  make 
a  more  extended  study  of  certain  periods  and  authors.  A 
Supplementary  List  of  Minor  Aiithors  and  their  Chief 
Works  is  given  on  pp.  485-491  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
those  who  wish  to  read  the  best  work  of  minor  authors,  as 
well  as  for  the  purpose  of  serving  for  convenient  reference. 

On  account  of  the  extent  of  the  field  to  be  covered,  the 
treatment  of  American  literature  is  left  to  works  dealing 
especially  with  that  branch. 

The  pronunciation  of  difficult  names  is  indicated  suffi- 
ciently in  the  index. 

The  student  should  refer  to  the  Literary  Map  of  Eng- 
land, pp.  8,  9,  to  familiarize  himself  with  the  location  of 
the  birthplaces  and  homes  of  eminent  authors.  Whenever 
he  reads  of  the  Quantock  Hills  or  of  the  Lake  District,  of 
the  Exeter  Book  or  of  Stoke  Poges  churchyard,  he  ought 
immediately  to  turn  to  the  map  to  find  the  place  indicated. 

While  the  writer  owes  much  to  the  great  masters  of 
criticism,  he  has  written  this  work  only  after  long  and 
careful  original  study  of  the  authors  under  discussion. 
From  one  source  he  has  received  such  valuable  assistance 
as  to  demand  emphatic  mention.  During  three  years  of 
the  time  in  which  this  work  has  been  in  preparation,  he 
has  had  the  constant  assistance  of  his  wife,  a  critical  stu- 
dent of  English  literature.  To  her  is  due  the  entire  treat- 
ment of  certain  authors  in  periods  that  she  has  made  the 
subject  of  special  study. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066        .  11 

II.    FROM   THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,   1066,  TO   CHAUCER'S 

DEATH,  1400 47 

III.  FROM  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400,  TO  THE  ACCESSION  OF 

ELIZABETH,  1558 89 

IV.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH     .        .  103 
V.    THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660       .  184 

VI.    THE  AGE  OF  THE  RESTORATION,  1660-1700  .        .        .  213 

VII.    THE  FIRST  FORTY  YEARS  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CEN- 
TURY, 1700-1740 232 

VIII.    THE    SECOND    FORTY   YEARS   OF    THE   EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY,  1740-1780 262 

IX.    THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837          .        „        .  305 

X.    THE  VICTORIAN  AGE,  1837-1901 385 

CONCLUSION        ..........  479 

SUPPLEMENTARY  LIST  OF  MINOR  AUTHORS  AND  THEIR  CHIEF 

WORKS 485 

INDEX         .                491 

TO 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

CHAPTER   I 

FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN   CONQUEST,  1066 

The  Subject  Matter.  —  The  history  of  English  literature, 
is  a  record  of  the  best  thoughts  that  have  been  expressed 
in  the  English  language.  Literature  appeals  especially  to 
the  imagination  and  the  emotions.  Literature  aims  not  so 
much  to  state  a  fact  after  the  manner  of  a  text-book  on 
science  as  to  start  imaginative  activity  and  to  appeal  to 
the  emotions.  When  Macbeth  says  of  the  dead  King :  — 

"  After  life's  fitful  fever  he  sleeps  well," 

our  feelings  are  touched  and  the  door  is  opened  for 
imaginative  activity,  as  we  wonder  why  life  is  called  a 
fitful  fever  and  try  to  realize  the  mystery  of  that  long  and 
restful  sleep.  True  literature  calls  for  such  activity. 

If  we  would  broaden  ourselves  and  increase  our  capacity 
for  appreciating  the  manifold  sides  of  the  life  of  the  spirit, 
we  must  become  familiar  with  the  thoughts  and  ideals  of 
those  who  have  given  us  our  inspiring  literature.  For 
nearly  fifteen  hundred  years  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has 
been  producing  the  greatest  of  all  literatures.  The  most 
boastful  of  other  nations  make  no  claim  to  having  a 
Shakespeare  on  the  list  of  their  immortals. 

ii 


12        FROM   449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,   1066 

The  Home  and  Migrations  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Race. — 
Just  as  there  was  a  time  when  no  Anglo-Saxon  foot  had 
touched  the  shores  of  America,  so  there  was  a  period  when 
the  ancestors  of  the  English  lived  far  away  from  the  Brit- 
ish Isles,  and  were  rightly  looked  upon  as  foreigners  there. 
For  nearly  four  hundred  years  prior  to  the  coming  of  the 
English,  Britain  had  been  a  Roman  province.  In  410  A.D. 
the  Romans  withdrew  their  legions  from  Britain  to  pro- 
tect Rome  herself  against  swarms  of  Teutonic  invaders. 
About  449  a  band  of  Teutons,  called  Jutes,  left  Denmark, 
landed  on  the  Isle  of  Thanet  (northeastern  part  of  Kent), 
and  began  the  conquest  of  Britain.  Warriors  from  the 
tribes  of  the  Angles  and  the  Saxons  soon  followed,  and 
drove  westward  the  original  inhabitants,  the  Britons  or 
Welsh,  i.e.  foreigners,  as  the  Teutons  styled  the  natives. 

Before  the  invasion  of  Britain,  the  Teutons  inhabited 
the  central  part  of  Europe  as  far  south  as  the  Rhine, 
a  tract  which  in  a  large  measure  coincides  with  modern 
Germany.  The  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons  were  different 
tribes  of  Teutons.  These  ancestors  of  the  English  dwelt 
in  Denmark  and  in  the  lands  extending  southward  along 
the  North  Sea. 

The  Angles,  an  important  Teutonic  tribe,  furnished  the 
name  for  the  new  home,  which  was  called  Angle-land, 
afterward  shortened  into  England.  The  language  spoken 
by  these  tribes  is  generally  called  Anglo-Saxon  or  Saxon. 

The  Training  of  the  Race.  —  The  climate  is  a  potent  factor 
in  determining  the  vigor  and  characteristics  of  a  race. 
Nature  had  reared  the  Teuton  like  a  wise  but  not  indul- 
gent parent.  By  every  method  known  to  her,  she  endeav- 
ored to  render  him  fit  to  colonize  and  sway  the  world. 
Summer  paid  him  but  a  brief  visit.  His  companions  were 
the  frost,  the  fluttering  snowflake,  the  stinging  hail.  For 


THE  TEUTONIC   RACE  13 

music,  instead  of  the  soft  notes  of  a  shepherd's  pipe  under 
blue  Italian  or  Grecian  skies,  he  listened  to  the  north  wind 
whistling  among  the  bare  branches,  or  to  the  roar  of  an 
angry  northern  sea  upon  the  bleak  coast. 

The  feeble  could  not  withstand  the  rigor  of  such  a  cli- 
mate in  the  absence  of  the  comforts  of  civilization.  Only 
the  strongest  in  each  generation  survived  ;  and  these  trans- 
mitted to  their  children  increasing  vigor.  Warfare  was 
incessant,  not  only  with  nature  but  also  with  the  surround- 
ing tribes.  Nature  kept  the  Teuton  in  such  a  school  until 
he  seemed  fit  to  colonize  the  world,  and  to  produce  a  lit- 
erature which  would  appeal  to  humanity  in  every  age. 

The  Early  Teutonic  Religion.  —  Our  ancestors  were 
heathen  for  some  time  after  they  came  to  England.  Their 
principal  deity  was  Woden,  the  All-father,  from  whom 
Wednesday  is  named.  Thunor,  the  invincible  god  of 
thunder,  has  also  given  his  name  to  a  day  of  the  week. 
In  the  old  Norse  mythology,  to  which  the  old  Teutonic 
religions  are  closely  allied,  heaven  was  called  Valhal. 
Woden's  daughters  were  called  Valkyries,  and  it  was 
their  mission  to  ride  their  cloudlike  steeds  over  earthly 
battlefields,  to  note  the  bravest  warriors,  and  to  conduct 
to  Valhal  such  as  were  selected  to  fall.  Death  while 
courageously  fighting  on  the  battlefield  made  the  hero 
sure  of  being  taken  to  Valhal  to  become  Woden's  guest. 
There  at  the  table  of  the  gods,  the  warrior  ate  of  the  flesh 
of  the  magic  boar,  drank  from  a  river  of  ale,  and  indulged 
to  his  heart's  content  in  the  sword  game.  This  old  Norse 
religion  was  instinct  with  a  gloomy  fatalism.  Upon  Val- 
hal and  the  throng  of  heroes  whom  Woden  summoned 
to  help  him  fight  his  foes,  could  be  seen  a  ravenlike 
shadow,  growing  ever  larger  and  threatening  to  wrap  all 
in  lasting  darkness.  Loki,  the  spirit  of  evil,  was  fated  to 


14       FROM   449  A.D.  TO  THE   NORMAN   CONQUEST,   1066 

break  his  chains,  and  he,  with  the  life-destroying  giants  of 
the  frost,  would  devour  the  very  gods. 

We  cannot  say  exactly  how  much  of  this  belief  was  held 
by  our  ancestors  in  England.  They  certainly  worshiped 
some  gods  of  the  same  names  and  were  imbued  with  the 
same  fatalism.  In  Beowulf  there  is  allusion  to  Wyrd  (fate), 
and  the  web  of  destiny  is  mentioned  in  several  old  poems. 

Somber  Cast  of  the  Teutonic  Mind.  —  The  early  religious 
beliefs  of  the  Teuton  received  their  gloomy  coloring  from 
the  rigor  of  nature's  forces,  from  the  frost  giants  with 
whom  he  battled.  The  winter  twilight  fell  upon  him  in 
his  northern  home  about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
During  the  long  evenings  he  would  often  think  how  the 
world  had  promised  him  much  and  given  him  little,  and 
the  gloom  of  this  life  would  cast  its  shadow  upon  the  next. 
Even  in  summer  days,  his  leaden  sky  was  often  obscured 
with  rain  clouds  driven  by  the  restless  winds.  In  wintry 
nights  the  hours  would  drag  wearily  as  he  listened  to  the 
hail  or  heard  the  half-human  moaning  of  the  fir  trees. 

We  must  remember  this  cast  of  the  Teutonic  mind  in 
order  to  understand  its  literature.  We  find  Shakespeare 
likening  life  to  a  fitful  fever,  and  considering  the  gloomy 
problem  of  existence  in  the  person  of  Hamlet.  We  listen 
to  Gray,  singing  that  everything  we  prize  "awaits  alike 
the  inevitable  hour "  ;  to  Burns,  comparing  pleasure  to  a 
snowflake  falling  in  the  river ;  to  Poe,  singing  the  melan- 
choly song  of  the  Raven  ;  to  Tennyson,  sighing  :  — 

"  He  will  not  hear  the  north  wind  rave, 
Nor,  moaning,  household  shelter  crave 
From  winter  rains  that  beat  his  grave."1 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Language.  —  Our  oldest  English  liter- 

1  The  Two  Voices. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON   LANGUAGE  15 

ature  is  written  in  the  language  spoken  by  the  Angles  and 
the  Saxons.  This  at  first  sight  looks  like  a  strange  tongue 
to  one  conversant  with  modern  English  only ;  but  the  lan- 
guage that  we  employ  to-day  has  the  framework,  the  bone 
and  sinew,  of  the  earlier  tongue.  Modern  English  is  no 
more  unlike  Anglo-Saxon  than  a  bearded  man  is  unlike 
his  former  childish  self.  A  few  examples  will  show  the 
likeness  and  the  difference.  "  The  noble  queen  "  would  in 
Anglo-Saxon  be  seo  ceflele  cwen ;  "the  noble  queen's,"  flare 
ceflelan  cwene.  Seo  is  the  nominative  feminine  singular, 
flare  the  genitive,  of  the  definite  article.  The  adjective 
and  the  noun  also  change  their  forms  with  the  varying 
cases.  In  its  inflections  Anglo-Saxon  resembles  its  sister 
language,  the  modern  German. 

After  the  first  feeling  of  strangeness  has  passed  away, 
it  is  easy  to  recognize  many  of  the  old  words.  Take,  for 
instance,  this  from  Beowulf:  — 

".  .  .  fly  he  "Sone  feond  ofercwom, 
gehnsegde  helle  gast." 

Here  are  eight  words,  apparently  strange,  but  even  a 
novice  soon  recognizes  five  of  them  :  he,  feond  (fiend), 
ofercwom  (overcame),  helle  (hell),  gast  (ghost).  The  word 
"done,  strange  as  it  looks,  is  merely  the  article  "  the." 

.  .  .  therefore  he  overcame  the  fiend, 
Subdued  the  ghost  of  hell. 

Let  us  take  from  the  same  poem  another  passage,  con- 
taining the  famous  simile  :  — 

".  .  .  leoht  inne  stod, 
efne  swa  of  hefene  hadre  seine's 
rodores  candel." 

Of  these  eleven  words,  seven  may  be  recognized :  leoht 


16        FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

(light),  inne  (in),  stod  (stood),  of,  hefene  (heaven),  sclneS 
(shineth),  candel  (candle). 

...  a  light  stood  within, 

Even  so  from  heaven  serenely  shineth 

The  firmament's  candle. 

Some  object  to  using  the  term  "Anglo-Saxon,"  and 
insist  on  substituting  "Old  English,"  because  it  might 
otherwise  be  thought  that  modern  English  is  a  different 
language  and  not  merely  a  growth.  They  might  with  equal 
justice  claim  that  "  grown  boy  "  should  be  used  in  place 
of  a  new  term  "  man,"  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  boy, 
who  has  grown  into  a  man,  is  still  the  same  person. 

Earliest  Anglo-Saxon  Literature. — As  in  the  case  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  poetry  afforded  the  first  outlet  for 
the  feelings  of  the  Teutonic  race.  The  first  productions 
were  handed  down  by  memory.  Poetry  is  easily  memo- 
rized and  naturally  lends  itself  to  singing  and  musical 
accompaniment.  Under  such  circumstances,  even  prose 
would  speedily  fall  into  metrical  form.  In  addition  to  these 
reasons,  poetry  is  the  most  suitable  vehicle  of  expression 
for  the  emotions.  Unlike  modern  writers,  the  ancients 
seldom  undertook  to  make  literature  unless  they  felt  so 
deeply  that  silence  was  impossible. 

The  Form  of  Anglo-Saxon  Poetry.  —  Each  line  is  divided 
into  two  parts  by  a  major  pause.  Because  each  of  these 
parts  was  often  printed  as  a  complete  line  in  old  texts, 
Beowulf  has  sometimes  been  called  a  poem  of  6368  lines, 
although  it  has  but  3184. 

A  striking  characteristic  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  is  con- 
sonantal alliteration,  that  is,  the  repetition  of  the  same 
consonant  at  the  beginning  of  words  in  the  'same  line :  — 

"  Grendel  gongan  ;    Codes  yrre    baer." 
Greauel  going    ;   God's  anger  bare. 


FORM   OF   ANGLO-SAXON   POETRY  I/ 

The  usual  type  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  has  two  allitera- 
tions in  the  first  half  of  the  line  and  one  in  the  second. 
The  lines  vary  considerably  in  the  number  of  syllables- 
The  line  from  Beowulf  quoted  just  above  has  nine  sylla- 
bles. The  following  line  from  the  same  poem  has  eleven; — 

"  Flota  famig-heals,      fugle        gelicost." 

The  floater  foamy-necked,  to  a  fowl  most  like. 

This  line,  also  from  Beowulf,  has  eight  syllables :  — 

"  Nipende  niht,    and  norSan    wind." 
Noisome  night,  and  northern  wind. 

Vowel  alliteration  is  less  common.  Where  this  is  em- 
ployed, the  vowels  are  generally  different,  as  is  shown  in 
the  principal  words  of  the  following  line :  — 

"  On  ead,        on  zeht,      on  eorcan     stan."  , 

On  wealth,  on  goods,  on  precious  stone. 

End  rhyme  is  uncommon,  but  we  must  beware  of  think- 
ing that  there  is  no  rhythm,  for  that  is  a  pronounced  char- 
acteristic. Anglo-Saxon  verse  was  intended  to  be  sung,  and 
hence  a  fixed  number  of  beats  was  necessary.  There  are 
normally  four  accents  in  each  line,  two  in  the  first  half  and 
two  in  the  second.  In  the  first  half,  the  two  alliterative 
syllables  are  accented ;  in  the  second,  besides  the  allitera- 
tive syllable,  the  word  corresponding  to  the  most  important 
idea  is  accented.  It  should  also  be  observed  that  allitera- 
tion seldom  falls  on  any  but  the  most  important  words. 

The  Manuscripts  that  have  handed  down  Anglo-Saxon 
Literature.  —  The  earliest  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  was  trans- 
mitted by  the  memories  of  men.  Finally,  with  the  slow 
growth  of  learning,  a  few  acquired  the  art  of  writing,  and 
transcribed  on  parchment  a  small  portion  of  the  current 
songs.  The  introduction  of  Christianity  ushered  in  prose 


1 8         FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

translations  and  a  few  original  compositions,  which  were 
taken  down  on  parchment  and  kept  in  the  monasteries. 

The  study  of  Anglo-Saxon  literature  is  comparatively 
recent,  for  its  treasures  have  not  been  long  accessible.  Its 
most  famous  poem,  Beowulf,  was  not  discovered  until  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  1822  Dr.  Blume,  a 
German  professor  of  law,  happened  to  find  in  a  monastery 
at  Vercelli,  Italy,  a  large  volume  of  Anglo-Saxon  manu- 
script, containing  a  number  of  fine  poems  and  twenty-two 
sermons.  This  is  now  known  as  the  Vercelli  Book.  No 
one  knows  how  it  happened  to  reach  Italy.  Another  large 


EXETER    CATHEDRAL 


parchment  volume  of  poems  and  miscellany  was  deposited 
by  Bishop  Leofric  at  the  cathedral  of  Exeter  in  Devon- 
shire, about  1050  A.D.  This  collection  is  now  called  the 
Exeter  Book,  and  it  is  still  one  of  the  prized  treasures  of 
that  cathedral. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON   SCOP   AND   GLEEMAN  19 

Many  valuable  manuscripts  were  destroyed  at  the  dis- 
solution of  the  monasteries  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII., 
between  1535  and  1540.  John  Bale,  a  contemporary 
writer,  says  that  "  those  who  purchased  the  monasteries 
reserved  the  books,  some  to  scour  their  candlesticks,  some 
to  rub  their  boots,  some  they  sold  to  the  grocers  and  soap- 
sellers,  and  some  they  sent  over  sea  to  the  bookbinders, 
not  in  small  numbers,  but  at  times  v/hole  ships  full,  to 
the  wondering  of  foreign  nations."  Part  of  the  valuable 
Anglo-Saxon  poem  Waldhere  was  discovered  in  1860  on 
leaves  of  parchment  which  had  been  used  in  binding 
another  book. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Scop  and  Gleeman. — Our  earliest  poetry 
was  made  current  and  kept  fresh  in  memory  by  the  singers. 
The  kings  and  nobles  often  attached  to  them  a  scop,  or 
maker  of  verses.  When  the  warriors,  after  some  victorious 
battle,  were  feasting  at  their  long  tables,  the  banquet  was 
not  complete  without  the  songs  of  the  scop.  While  the 
warriors  ate  the  flesh  of  boar  and  deer,  and  warmed  their 
blood  with  horns  of  foaming  ale,  the  scop,  standing  where 
the  blaze  from  a  pile  of  logs  disclosed  to  him  the  grizzly 
features  of  the  men,  sang  his  most  stirring  songs,  often 
accompanying  them  with  the  music  of  a  rude  harp.  As 
the  feasters  roused  his  enthusiasm  with  their  applause, 
he  would  sometimes  indulge  in  an  outburst  of  eloquent 
extempore  song.  Not  infrequently  the  imagination  of 
some  king  or  noble  would  be  fired,  and  he  would  sing  of 
his  own  great  deeds. 

We  read  in  Beowulf  that  in  Hrothgar's  famous  hall 


"...  '$j>er  waes  hearpan  sweg, 
swutol  sang  scopes." 

.  .  .  there  was  sound  of  harp. 
Loud  the  singing  of  the  scop. 


20        FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,   1066 

In  addition  to  the  scop,  who  was  more  or  less  permanently 
attached  to  the  royal  court  or  hall  of  noble,  there  was  a 
craft  of  gleemen  who  roved  from  hall  to  hall.  In  the 
song  of  WidstiS  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  life  of  a  glee- 
man: — 

•'  Swa  scriSende  gesceapum  hweorfaft 
gleomen  gumena  geond  grunda  fela." 

Thus  roving,  with  shape'd  songs  there  wander 
The  gleemen  of  the  people  through  many  lands. 

The  scop  was  an  originator  of  poetry,  the  gleeman  more 
often  a  mere  repeater,  although  this  distinction  in  the  use 
of  the  terms  was  not  observed  in  later  times. 

The  Songs  of  Scop  and  Gleeman.  —  The  subject  matter 
of  these  songs  was  suggested  by  the  most  common  experi- 
ences of  the  time.  These  were  with  war,  the  sea,  and 
death. 

The  oldest  Anglo-Saxon  song  known  is  called  WtdsiXfu/t 
the  Far  Traveler,  and  it  has  been  preserved  in  the  Exeter 
Book.  This  song  was  probably  composed  in  the  older 
Angle-land  on  the  continent,  and  brought  to  England  in 
the  memories  of  the  singers.  The  poem  is  an  account  of 
the  wanderings  of  a  gleeman  over  a  great  part  of  Europe. 
Such  a  song  will  mean  little  to  us  unless  we  can  imagina- 
tively represent  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
sung,  the  long  hall  with  its  tables  of  feasting,  drinking 
warriors,  the  firelight  throwing  weird  shadows  among  the 
smoky  rafters.  The  imagination  of  the  warriors  would  be 
roused  as  similar  experiences  of  their  own  were  suggested 
by  these  lines  in  WidsiS's  song :  — 

"  Ful  oft  of  •Sam  heape  hwmende  fleag 
giellende  gar  on  grome  tieode." 

Full  oft  from  that  host  hissing  flew 
The  whistling  spear  on  the  fierce  folk. 


THE  SONGS  OF  SCOP  AND  GLEEMAN        21 

The  gleeman  ends  this  song  with  two  thoughts  character- 
istic of  the  poets  of  the  Saxon  race.  He  shows  his  love 
for  noble  deeds,  and  he  next  thinks  of  the  shortness  of  life, 
as  he  sings  :  — 

"  In  mortal  court  his  deeds  are  not  unsung, 
Such  as  a  noble  man  will  show  to  men, 
Till  all  doth  flit  away,  both  life  and  light." 

A   greater   scop,    looking    at    life    through    Saxon   eyes, 

sings  :  — 

"  We  are  such  stuff 

As  dreams  are  made  on ;  and  our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep." 1 

Another  old  song,  also  found  in  the  Exeter  Book,  is  the 
Seafarer.  We  must  imagine  the  scop  recalling  vivid  expe- 
riences to  our  early  ancestors  with  this  song  of  the  sea :  — 

"  Hail  flew  in  hard  showers, 
And  nothing  I  heard 
But  the  wrath  of  the  waters, 
The  icy-cold  way ; 
At  times  the  swan's  song ; 
In  the  scream  of  the  gannet 
I  sought  for  my  joy, 
In  the  moan  of  the  sea  whelp 
For  laughter  of  men, 
In  the  song  of  the  sea-mew 
For  drinking  of  mead."  3 

To  show  that  love  of  the  sea  yet  remains  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  English  poetry,  we  may  quote  by  way  of 
comparison  a  song  sung  more  than  a  thousand  years  later, 
in  Victoria's  reign  :  — 

1  Shakespeare :  The  Tempest,  Act  IV.,  scene  i . 

2  Morley's  translation,  English  Writers,  Vol.  II.,  p.  21. 
HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  2 


22        FROM   449  A.D.  TO  THE   NORMAN   CONQUEST,  1066 

"  The  wind  is  as  iron  that  rings, 
The  foam  heads  loosen  and  flee ; 
It  swells  and  welters  and  swings, 
The  pulse  of  the  tide  of  the  sea. 

"  Let  the  wind  shake  our  flag  like  a  feather, 
Like  the  plumes  of  the  foam  of  the  sea  ! 

In  the  teeth  of  the  hard  glad  weather, 
In  the  blown  wet  face  of  the  sea."1 

Another  song  from  the  Exeter  Book  is  called  The  For- 
tunes of  Men.  It  gives  vivid  pictures  of  certain  phases 
of  life  among  the  Anglo-Saxons.  The  notes  of  the  harp 
must  have  sounded  sad,  as  the  scop  sang  :  — 

"  One  shall  sharp  hunger  slay ; 
One  shall  the  storms  beat  down ; 
One  be  destroyed  by  darts, 
One  die  in  war. 
One  shall  live  losing 
The  light  of  his  eyes, 
Feel  blindly  with  fingers ; 
And  one  lame  of  foot, 
With  sinew-wound  wearily 
Wasteth  away, 
Musing  and  mourning, 
With  death  in  his  mind. 

One  shall  die  by  the  dagger, 

In  wrath,  drenched  with  ale, 

Wild  through  wine,  on  the  mead  bench, 

Too  swift  with  his  words ; 

Too  lightly  his  life 

Shall  the  wretched  one  lose.1'2- 

The  songs  that  we  have  noted  are  only  a  small  fraction 
of  scopic  poetry,  but  they  will,  together  with  Beowulf,  the 
greatest  of  them  all,  give  a  fair  idea  of  this  type  of  verse. 

1  Swinburne's  A  Song  in  Time  of  Order. 

8  Morley's  English  Writers,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  33,  34. 


THE  SONGS  OF  SCOP  AND  GLEEMAN  23 

BEOWULF 

Evolution  of  the  Poem.  —  The  greatest  monument  of 
Anglo-Saxon  poetry  is  called  Beowulf,  from  the  name 
of  its  hero.  It  is  the  oldest  epic  poem  of  the  Teutonic 
race.  Beowulf  was  probably  a  long  time  in  process  of 
evolution.  Many  different  scops  added  new  episodes  to 
the  song,  altering  it  by  expansion  or  contraction  under  the 
influence  of  the  inspiration  of  the  hour  and  the  circum- 
stances of  place  and  time.  Finally,  some  monk  or  monks 
edited  the  poem,  changing  it  in  various  ways,  endeavoring 
especially  to  introduce  into  it  Christian  opinions. 

Time  and  Place  of  Composition.  —  Critics  are  divided 
about  the  time  and  place  of  the  composition  of  Beowulf. 
It  is  possible  that  some  of  the  songs  which  enter  into  its 
framework  were  sung  by  the  scop  on  the  continent  before 
any  of  our  ancestors  came  to  England ;  that  is,  before 
449  A.D.  With  regard  to  the  form  in  which  we  now  have 
the  poem,  Ten  Brink  is  probably  right  in  saying  that  it 
dates  from  about  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century. 
The  places  mentioned  in  the  poem  seem  to  indicate  the 
correctness  of  the  following  statement  from  Stopford 
Brooke :  "  The  scenery  then  is  laid  on  the  coast  of  the 
North  Sea  and  the  Kattegat,  the  first  act  of  the  poem 
among  the  Danes  in  Seeland,  the  second  among  the 
Geats  in  South  Sweden." 

The  student  who  wishes  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the 
poem  will  do  well  to  familiarize  himself  with  the  position 
of  these  coasts,  and  with  a  description  of  their  natural 
features  in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer.  Heine  says  of 
the  sea  which  Beowulf  sailed  :  — 

"  Before  me  rolleth  a  waste  of  water  .  .  .  and  above  me  go  rolling  the 
storm  clouds,  the  formless  dark  gray  daughters  of  air,  which  from  the 


24        FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

sea  in  cloudy  buckets  scoop  up  the  water,  ever  wearied  lifting  and  lift- 
ing, and  then  pour  it  again  in  the  sea,  a  mournful,  wearisome  business. 
Over  the  sea,  flat  on  his  face,  lies  the  monstrous,  terrible  North  Wind, 
sighing  and  sinking  his  voice  as  in  secret,  like  an  old  grumbler ;  for 
once  in  good  humor,  unto  the  ocean  he  talks,  and  he  tells  her  wonder- 
ful stories." 

The  Subject  Matter.  —  This  poem  of  3 1 84  lines  describes 
the  deeds  of  the  Teutonic  hero  Beowulf.  Hrothgar,  the 
King  of  the  Danes,  built  a  magnificent  mead  hall  to  which 
he  gave  the  name  of  Heorot.1  While  the  Danes  were  eat- 
ing and  drinking  their  fill  in  this  famous  hall,  Grendel,  a 
monster  half-human,  came  from  the  moor,  burst  in  upon 
them,  mangled  thirty  warriors,  and  then  rushed  off  into 
the  darkness.  For  twelve  years  this  monster  harried  the 
warriors  whenever  they  feasted  in  the  hall,  until  the  brav- 
est were  afraid  to  enter  it.  When  Beowulf  heard  of  this, 
he  sailed  with  his  warriors  to  Heorot,  and  persuaded  the 
Danes  to  feast  with  him  in  the  hall.  After  they  had  fallen 
asleep  there,  Grendel  burst  in  the  door,  seized  a  warrior, 
and  devoured  him  in  a  few  mouthfuls.  Then  he  grasped 
Beowulf.  The  hero,  disdaining  to  use  a  sword  against 
the  dire  monster,  grappled  with  him,  and  together  they 
wrestled  up  and  down  the  hall.  In  their  mad  contest 
they  overturned  the  tables  and  made  the  vast  hall  tremble 
as  if  it  were  in  the  throes  of  an  earthquake. 

Finally  Beowulf,  with  a  grip  like  that  of  thirty  men,  tore 
away  the  arm  and  shoulder  of  the  monster,  who  rushed 
out  to  the  marshes  to  die.  The  next  night  a  banquet  was 
given  in  fateful  Heorot  in  honor  of  the  hero.  After  the 

1  The  student  will  do  well  to  note  in  his  atlas  the  location  which  authorities 
have  assigned  to  this  hall.  Thomas  Arnold  says :  "  The  view  of  Sarrazin  and 
Danish  scholars  that  the  site  of  Hrothgar's  mansion  must  be  placed  in  close 
proximity  to  that  of  Leire,  near  the  head  of  the  Roskilde  Fiord  in  Zealand 
[Seeland]  is  now  generally  accepted." 


BEOWULF  25 

feast,  the  warriors  slept  in  the  hall,  but  Beowulf  went  to 
the  palace.  He  had  been  gone  but  a  short  time,  when  in 
rushed  Grendel's  mother  to  avenge  the  death  of  her  son. 
She  seized  a  warrior,  the  king's  dearest  friend,  and  carried 
him  away.  In  the  morning  the  king  said  to  Beowulf :  — 

"  My  trusty  friend  yEschere  is  dead.  .  .  .  The  cruel  hag  has  wreaked 
on  him  her  vengeance.  The  country  folk  said  there  were  two  of  them, 
one  the  semblance  of  a  woman  ;  the  other,  the  specter  of  a  man.  Their 
haunt  is  in  the  remote  land,  in  the  crags  of  the  wolf,  the  wind-beaten 
cliffs,  and  untrodden  bogs,  where  the  dismal  stream  plunges  into  the 
drear  abyss  of  an  awful  lake,  overhung  with  a  dark  and  grizzly  wood 
rooted  down  to  the  water's  edge,  where  a  lurid  flame  plays  nightly  on 
the  surface  of  the  flood  —  and  there  lives  not  the  man  who  knows  its 
depth  !  So  dreadful  is  the  place  that  the  hunted  stag,  hard  driven  by 
the  hounds,  will  rather  die  on  the  bank  than  find  a  shelter  there.  A 
place  of  terror  !  When  the  wind  rises,  the  waves  mingle  hurly-burly 
with  the  clouds,  the  air  is  stifling  and  rumbles  with  thunder.  To  thee 
alone  we  look  for  relisf."  * 

This  selection  shows  why  the  poetry  of  wild  nature 
was  largely  a  growth  of  later  times.  Ignorance  peopled 
unknown  places  with  monsters.  Weird  scenery,  which 
might  to-day  move  the  pen  of  the  poet,  was  then  looked 
upon  as  the  dwelling  place  of  evil  spirits.  The  very  mists 
took  the  shape  of  a  Grendel  stalking  over  the  moor. 

Beowulf  followed  the  bloody  trail  of  Grendel's  mother 
to  the  terrible  flood.  Undaunted  by  the  dragons  and 
serpents  that  made  their  home  within  the  depths,  he 
grasped  a  sword  and  plunged  beneath  the  waves.  After 
sinking  what  seemed  to  him  a  day's  space,  he  saw 
Grendel's  mother,  who  came  forward  to  meet  him.  She 
dragged  him  into  her  dwelling,  where  there  was  no  water, 
and  the  fight  began.  The  issue  was  for  a  time  doubtful, 

1  Earle's  translation. 


26        FROM   449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

but  at  last  Beowulf  ran  her  through  with  a  gigantic  sword, 
and  she  fell  dead  upon  the  floor  of  her  dwelling.  A  little 
distance  away,  he  saw  the  dead  body  of  Grendel.  The 
hero  cut  off  the  heads  of  the  monster  and  his  mother  and 
hastened  away  to  Hrothgar's  court.  After  receiving  much 
praise  and  many  presents,  Beowulf  sailed  homeward  with 
his  warriors,  where  he  ruled  as  king  for  fifty  years. 

The  closing  part  of  the  poem  tells  how  one  of  Beowulf's 
subjects  stole  some  of  the  treasure  which  a  firedrake  had 
for  three  hundred  years  been  guarding  in  a  cavern.  The 
enraged  monster  with  his  fiery  breath  laid  waste  the  land. 
Beowulf  sought  the  dragon  in  his  cavern  and  after  a  terri- 
ble fight  slew  the  monster,  but  was  himself  mortally 
wounded,  and  died  after  seeing  in  the  cavern  the  heaps  of 
treasure  which  he  had  won  for  his  people. 

So  passed  away  the  hero  of  the  earliest  epic  poem  of 
any  branch  of  the  Teutonic  race.  Beowulf  affords  valu- 
able insight  into  the  characteristics  of  that  age.  We  are 
given  the  events  of  an  entire  day  in  the  life  of  our  fore- 
fathers. In  Beowulf 'we  look  upon  the  scenery  with  which 
they  were  familiar ;  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  their 
hopes  and  fears,  their  ideas  of  duty,  their  manner  of 
regarding  life,  and  the  way  they  took  their  exit  from  it. 

THE  CEDMONIAN  CYCLE 

Caedmon.  —  In  597  A.D.  St.  Augustine  began  to  teach 
the  Christian  religion  to  the  Anglo-Saxons.  The  results 
of  this  teaching  were  shown  in  the  subsequent  literature. 
In  what  is  known  as  Caedmon's  Paraphrase,  the  next  great 
Anglo-Saxon  epic,  there  is  no  decrease  in  the  warlike 
spirit.  Instead  of  Grendel  we  have  Satan  as  the  arch- 
enemy against  whom  the  battle  rages. 


THE  C^DMONIAN  CYCLE 


Caedmon,  who  died  in  680,  was  until  middle  life  a  lay- 
man attached  to  the  monastery  at  Whitby,  on  the  north- 
east coast  of  Yorkshire.  Since  the  Paraphrase  has  been 


ROINS    OF    WHITBY    ABBEY 

attributed  to  Caedmon  on  the  authority  of  the  Saxon  his- 
torian Bede,  born  673,  we  shall  quote  Bede  himself  on 
the  subject,  from  his  famous  Ecclesiastical  History :  — 

"  Caedmon,  having  lived  in  a  secular  habit  until  he  was  well  advanced 
in  years,  had  never  learned  anything  of  versifying ;  for  which  reason, 
being  sometimes  at  entertainments,  where  it  was  agreed  for  the  sake 
of  mirth  that  all  present  should  sing  in  their  turns,  when  he  saw  the 
instrument  come  toward  him,  he  rose  up  from  table  and  returned  home. 

•'  Having  done  so  at  a  certain  time,  and  gone  out  of  the  house  where 
the  entertainment  was,  to  the  stable,  where  he  had  to  take  care  of  the 
horses  that  night,  he  there  composed  himself  to  rest  at  the  proper 
time ;  a  person  appeared  to  him  in  his  sleep,  and,  saluting  him  by  his 
name,  said,  'Caedmon,  sing  some  song  to  me.1  He  answered,  'I  can- 
not sing ;  for  that  was  the  reason  why  I  left  the  entertainment,  and 
retired  to  this  place,  because  I  could  not  sing.1  The  other  who  talked 


28        FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

to  him  replied,  'However,  you  shall  sing.1  'What  shall  I  sing?'  re- 
joined he.  '  Sing  the  beginning  of  created  beings,1  said  the  other. 
Hereupon  he  presently  began  to  sing  verses  to  the  praise  of  God." 

Caedmon  remembered  the  poetry  which  he  had  com- 
posed in  his  dreams  and  he  repeated  it  in  the  morning 
to  the  inmates  of  the  monastery.  They  concluded  that 
the  gift  of  song  was  divinely  given  and  had  him  enter 
the  monastery  and  devote  his  time  to  poetry. 

Of  Caedmon's  work  Bede  says  :  — 

"  He  sang  the  creation  of  the  world,  the  origin  of  man,  and  all  the 
history  of  Genesis :  and  made  many  verses  on  the  departure  of  the 
children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  and  their  entering  into  the  land  of 
promise,  with  many  other  histories  from  Holy  Writ ;  the  incarnation, 
passion,  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  and  his  ascension  into  heaven ;  the 
coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  preaching  of  the  Apostles ;  also 
the  terror  of  future  judgment,  the  horror  of  the  pains  of  hell,  and  the 
delights  of  heaven." 

The  Authorship  and  Subject  Matter  of  the  Caedmonian 
Cycle. — The  first  edition  of  the  Paraphrase  was  published 
in  1655  by  Junius,  an  acquaintance  of  Milton.  Junius 
attributed  the  entire  Paraphrase  to  Caedmon,  on  the  author- 
ity of  the  above  quotations  from  Bede. 

The  Paraphrase  is  really  composed  of  three  separate 
poems :  the  Genesis,  the  Exodus,  and  the  Daniel ;  and 
these  are  probably  the  works  of  different  writers.  Crit- 
ics are  not  agreed  whether  any  of  these  poems  in  their 
present  form  can  be  ascribed  to  Caedmon.  The  Genesis 
shows  too  much  difference  in  its  parts  to  be  produced 
by  one  author,  but  some  portions  of  this  poem  may  be 
Caedmon's  own  work.  The  Genesis,  like  Milton's  Paradise 
Lost,  has  for  its  subject  matter  the  fall  of  man  and  its  con- 
sequences. The  Exodus,  the  work  of  an  unknown  writer, 
is  a  poem  of  much  originality  on  the  escape  of  the  Chil- 


THE  OEDMONIAN  CYCLE  2Q 

dren  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  their  passage  through  the  Red 
Sea,  and  the  destruction  of  Pharaoh's  host.  The  Daniel, 
an  uninteresting  poem  of  765  lines,  paraphrases  portions 
of  the  book  of  Daniel,  relating  to  Nebuchadnezzar's 
dreams,  the  fiery  furnace,  and  Belshazzar's  feast. 

Characteristics  of  the  Poetry.  —  No  matter  who  wrote 
the  Paraphrase,  we  have  the  poetry,  a  fact  which  critics 
too  often  overlook.  Though  the  narrative  sometimes 
closely  follows  the  Biblical  account  in  Genesis,  Exodus, 
and  Daniel,  there  are  frequent  unfettered  outbursts  of 
the  imagination.  The  Exodus  rings  with  the  warlike 
notes  of  the  victorious  Teutonic  race. 

The  Genesis  possesses  special  interest  for  the  student, 
since  many  of  its  strong  passages  show  a  marked  likeness 
to  certain  parts  of  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  (p.  202).  Some 
critics  have  concluded  that  Milton  must  have  been  familiar 
with  the  Caedmonian  Genesis.  It  will  be  instructive  to  note 
the  parallelism  between  the  following  passages  from  the 
two  poems.  The  earlier  poem  pictures  the  home  of  the 
fallen  angels  as  a  place  of 

"...  eternal  night  and  sulphur  pains, 
Fulness  of  fire,  dread  cold,  reek,  and  red  flames." 

It  is  further  described  as  a  land 

"  That  was  without  light  and  full  of  flame."  * 

With  this  description  we  may  compare  these  lines  from 

Milton  :  — 

"A  dungeon  horrible,  on  all  sides  round, 

As  one  great  furnace  flamed ;  yet  from  those  flames 

No  light ;  but  rather  darkness  visible. 

...  a  fiery  deluge,  fed 

With  ever  burning  sulphur  unconsumed."2 

1  Morley's  translation.  2  Paradise  Lost,  Book  I.,  lines  61-69. 


30       FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

The  older  poet  sings  with  forceful  simplicity :  — 

"Then  comes,  at  dawn,  the  east  wind,  keen  with  frost." 

Milton  writes :  — 

"  .  .  .  the  parching  air 
Burns  frore,  and  cold  performs  the  effect  of  fire."1 

In  the  Genesis,  Satan's  description  of  his  new  home  is  as 
strong  as  in  the  Paradise  Lost :  — 

"...  Above,  below, 
Here  is  vast  fire,  and  never  have  I  seen 
More  loathly  landscape ;  never  fade  the  flames, 
Hot  over  Hell." 

Here  is  the  parallel  passage  from  Milton  :  — 

"  Seest  thou  yon  dreary  plain,  forlorn  and  wild, 
The  seat  of  desolation,  void  of  light, 
Save  what  the  glimmering  of  these  livid  flames 
Casts  pale  and  dreadful  ?  "  2 

When  Satan  rises  on  his  wings  to  cross  the  flaming  vault, 
the  Genesis  gives  in  one  line  an  idea  which  Milton  expands 
into  two  and  a  half  :  — 

"  Swang  Saet  fyr  on  twa  feondes  crasfte/' 

Struck  the  fire  asunder  with   fiendish  craft. 

"...  on  each  hand  the  flames, 

Driven  backward,  slope  their  pointing  spires,  and,  roll'd 
In  billows,  leave  i'  th1  midst  a  horrid  vale."  8 

It  is  not  certain  that  Milton  ever  knew  of  the  existence 
of  the  Caedmonian  Genesis ;  for  he  was  blind  three  years 
before  it  was  published.  But  whether  he  knew  of  it  or 
not,  it  is  a  striking  fact  that  the  temper  of  the  Teutonic 
mind  during  a  thousand  years  should  have  changed  so 

1  Paradise  Lost,  II.,  594.         *  Ibid.,  I.,  180-183.         8  Ii>id->  !•»  222-224. 


THE  CYNEWULF  CYCLE  31 

little  toward  the  choice  and  treatment  of  the  subject  of 
an  epic,  and  that  the  first  great  poem  known  to  have  been 
written  on  English  soil  should  in  so  many  points  have 
anticipated  the  greatest  epic  of  the  English  race. 


THE  CYNEWULF  CYCLE 

Cynewulf 's  Work.  —  Cynewulf  is  the  only  great  Anglo- 
Saxon  poet  who  affixed  his  name  to  certain  poems  and 
thus  settled  their  authorship.  We  know  nothing  of  his 
life  except  what  we  infer  from  his  poetry.  He  was  born 
near  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  and  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  he  passed  part  of  his  youth  as  a  thane  of  some  noble. 
It  is  improbable  that  he  was  a  wandering  gleeman.  He 
became  a  man  of  wide  learning,  well  skilled  in  "word- 
craft."  Such  learning  could  then  hardly  have  been  ac- 
quired outside  of  some  monastery  whither  he  may  have 
retired.  He  shows  a  poet's  love  for  the  beauty  of  the 
sun  and  the  moon  (fieofon-condelle\  aethelings  among  the 
constellations,  for  the  dew  and  the  rain,  for  the  strife  of 
the  waves  (holm-Brace^  for  the  steeds  of  the  sea  (sund- 
hengestas),  and  for  the  "  all-green  "  (eal-grene)  earth. 

The  Christ^  the  Elene,  the  Juliana,  and  the  Fates  of  the 
Apostles  contain  his  runes,  which  prove  that  he  is  the  au- 
thor of  these  poems.  The  Christ  is  a  poem  on  the  Savior's 
Nativity,  Ascension,  and  Judgment  of  the  world  at  the 
last  day.  No  other  Anglo-Saxon  poet  better  represents 
the  essence  and  spirit  of  Christianity.  The  description  of 
the  Last  Judgment  is  specially  powerful  and  dramatic :  — 

"  Lo  !  the  fire  blast,  flaming  far,  fierce  and  hungry  as  a  sword, 
Whelms  the  world  withal !  "  > 

*  Brooke's  translation. 


32        FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

Cynewulf  closes  the  poem  with  a  picture  of  a  happy 
land.  This  conception  would  never  have  occurred  to  a 
poet  of  the  warlike  Saxon  race  before  the  introduction 
of  Christianity. 

"...  Hunger  is  not  there  nor  thirst, 
Sleep  nor  heavy  sickness,  nor  the  scorching  of  the  Sun, 
Neither  cold  nor  care." 

Elene,  the  story  of  the  finding  of  the  Cross,  is  a  strong 
dramatic  poem.  It  tells  how  Constantine,  frightened  at 
the  number  of  his  foes,  falls  asleep  and  dreams  of  seeing 
the  Cross  with  the  inscription :  "  With  this  shalt  thou 
conquer."  He  then  has  a  cross  made  and  borne  at  the 
head  of  his  army,  which  is  victorious.  Seized  by  a  desire 
to  recover  the  true  Cross,  he  sends  his  mother,  Elene, 
with  a  large  force  to  the  Holy  Land.  The  story  pro- 
ceeds in  a  dramatic  way  to  the  finding  of  three  crosses  far 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth.  In  order  to  ascertain 
which  is  the  Holy  Rood,  a  dead  man  is  brought  in  contact 
with  the  first  cross,  but  the  watchers  see  no  sign  of  its 
power.  The  second  is  tried  with  like  result,  but  when  he 
touches  the  third,  he  is  immediately  restored  to  life. 

The  Juliana  also  has  dramatic  elements.  Juliana  is  a 
beautiful  maiden,  whom  her  father  tries  to  compel  to 
marry  a  persecutor  of  the  Christians.  She  refuses  and 
is  thrown  into  prison,  where  a  being  in  the  guise  of  an 
angel  appears  and  bids  her  worship  her  lover's  pagan 
gods.  She  prays,  and  her  prayer  compels  her  visitor  to 
assume  his  proper  fiendish  shape  and  gives  her  complete 
power  over  him.  The  story  of  his  discomfiture  and  the 
task  to  which  she  subjects  him,  introduces  an  element  of 
humor.  The  action  then  proceeds  to  her  martyrdom. 

Andreas  and  Phoenix.  —  Cynewulf  is  probably  the  author 
of  Andreas,  an  unsigned  poem  of  special  excellence  and 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF   ANGLO-SAXON   POETRY  33 

dramatic  power.  The  poem  describes  Andrew's  voyage 
to  Mermedonia  to  deliver  St.  Matthew.  The  Savior  in 
disguise  is  the  pilot.  The  dialogue  between  him  and 
Andrew  is  specially  fine.  The  saint  has  all  the  admira- 
tion of  a  Viking  for  his  unknown  Pilot,  who  stands  at  the 
helm  in  a  gale  and  manages  the  vessel  as  he  would  a 
thought. 

Cynewulf  is  also  the  probable  author  of  the  Phoenix t 
which .  is  in  part  an  adaptation  of  an  old  Latin  poem. 
The  Phoenix  is  the  only  Saxon  poem  which  gives  us  the 
rich  scenery  of  the  South,  in  place  of  the  stern  northern 
landscape.  He  thus  describes  the  land  where  this  fabulous 
bird  dwells :  — 

"  Calm  and  fair  this  glorious  field,  flashes  there  the  sunny  grove ; 
Happy  is  the  holt  of  trees,  never  withers  fruitage  there. 
Bright  are  there  the  blossoms.  .   .  . 
In  that  home  the  hating  foe  houses  not  at  all, 

Neither  sleep  nor  sadness,  nor  the  sick  man's  weary  bed, 

Nor  the  winter-whirling  snow.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  but  the  liquid  streamlets, 

Wonderfully  beautiful,  from  their  wells  upspringing, 

Softly  lap  the  land  with  their  lovely  floods." 1 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ANGLO-SAXON  POETRY 

Martial  Spirit.  —  The  love  of  war  is  very  marked  in 
Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  This  characteristic  might  have 
been  expected  in  the  songs  of  a  race  that  had  withstood 
the  well-nigh  all-conquering  arm  of  the  vast  Roman 
Empire. 

Our  study  of  Beowulf  has  already  shown  the  intensity 
of  the  martial  spirit  in  heathen  times.  These  lines  from 

1  Brooke's  translation. 


34       FROM  449  A.D.   TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,   1066 

the  Fight  at  Finnsburg,  dating  from  about  the  same  time 
as  Beowulf,  have  only  the  flash  of  the  sword  to  lighten 
their  gloom.  They  introduce  the  raven,  for  whom  the 
Saxon  felt  it  his  duty  to  provide  food  on  the  battlefield :  — 

"...  hraefen  wandrode 
sweart  and  sealo-brun  ;  swurd-leoma  stod 
swylce  eal  Finns-buruh  fyrenu  wasre." 

.  .  .  the  raven  wandered 

Swart  and  sallow-brown ;  the  sword-flash  stood 

As  if  all  Finnsburg  were  afire. 

The  love  of  war  is  almost  as  marked  in  the  Christian 
poetry.  There  are  vivid  pictures  of  battle  against  the 
heathen  and  the  enemies  of  God.  A  selection  from  one 
of  the  poems  of  the  Caedmonian  Cycle  will  show  this  :  — 

"  Helmeted  men  went  from  the  holy  burgh, 
At  the  first  reddening  of  dawn,  to  fight : 
Loud  stormed  the  din  of  shields. 
For  that  rejoiced  the  lank  wolf  in  the  wood, 
And  the  black  raven,  slaughter-greedy  bird."1 

The  poems  often  describe  battle  as  if  it -was  an  enjoy- 
able game.  They  mention  the  "  play  of  the  spear  "  and 
speak  of  "putting  to  sleep  with  the  sword,"  as  if  the  din 
of  war  was  in  their  ears  a  slumber  melody. 

One  of  the  latest  of  Anglo-Saxon  poems,  The  Battle  of 
Brunanburh,  937,  is  a  famous  example  of  war  poetry.  We 
quote  a  few  lines  from  Tennyson's  excellent  translation  :  — 

"  Grimly  with  swords  that  were  sharp  from  the  grindstone, 
Fiercely  we  hack'd  at  the  flyers  before  us. 

Five  young  kings  put  asleep  by  the  sword-stroke. 
Seven  strong  earls  of  the  army  of  Anlaf 
Fell  on  the  war-field,  numberless  numbers. 

1  Morley's  translation. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  ANGLO-SAXON   POETRY  35 

"  Slender  reason  had 
He  to  be  glad  of 
The  clash  of  the  war  glaive, 

The  wielding  of  weapons  — 
The  play  that  they  play'd  with 
The  children  of  Edward." 

Love  of  the  Sea.  —  The  Anglo-Saxon  fondness  for  the 
sea  has  been  noted,  together  with  the  fact  that  this  char- 
acteristic has  been  transmitted  to  more  recent  English 
poetry.  Our  forefathers  rank  among  the  best  seamen  that 
the  world  has  ever  known.  Had  they  not  loved  to  dare 
an  unknown  sea,  English  literature  might  not  have  existed, 
and  the  sun  might  never  have  risen  on  any  English  flag. 

The  scop  sings  thus  of  Beowulf's  adventure  on  the  North 
Sea :  — 

"Swoln  were  the  surges,  of  storms  'twas  the  coldest, 
Dark  grew  the  night,  and  northern  the  wind, 
Rattling  and  roaring,  rough  were  the  billows."  * 

In  the  Seafarer,  the  scop  also  sings  :  — 

"  My  mind  now  is  set, 
My  heart's  thought,  on  wide  waters, 
The  home  of  the  whale ; 
It  wanders  away 
Beyond  limits  of  land. 

And  stirs  the  mind's  longing 

To  travel  the  way  that  is  trackless."  2 

In  the  Andreas,  the  poet  speaks  of  the  ship  in  one  of  the 
most  charming  of  Saxon  similes  :  — 

"Foaming  Ocean  beats  our  steed  :  full  of  speed  this  boat  is ; 
Fares  along  foam-throated,  flieth  on  the  wave, 
Likest  to  a  bird."  8 

1  Brooke's  translation.  2  Morley's  translation.          3  Brooke's  translation. 


36        FROM   449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN   CONQUEST,  1066 

Some  of  the  most  striking  Saxon  epithets  are  applied  to 
the  sea.  We  may  instance  such  a  compound  as  dr-ge-bland 
(dr,  "oar";  blendan,  "to  blend"),  which  conveys  the  idea 
of  the  companionship  of  the  oar  with  the  sea.  From  this 
compound  modern  poets  have  borrowed  their  "  oar-dis- 
turbed sea,"  "oar£d  sea,"  "oar-blending  sea,"  and  "oar- 
wedded  sea."  The  Anglo-Saxon  poets  call  the  sun  rising  or 
setting  in  the  sea  the  mere-candel.  In  Beowulf,  mere-strata, 
"sea-streets,"  are  spoken  of  as  if  they  were  the  easily 
traversed  avenues  of  a  town. 

Figures  of  Rhetoric.  —  A  special  characteristic  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  poetry  is  the  rarity  of  similes.  In  Homer  they 
are  frequent,  but  Anglo-Saxon  verse  is  too  abrupt  and 
rapid  in  the  succession  of  images  to  employ  the  expanded 
simile.  The  long  poem  of  Beowulf  contains  only  five 
similes,  and  these  are  of  the  shorter  kind.  Two  of  them, 
the  comparison  of  the  light  in  Grendel's  dwelling  to  the 
beams  of  the  sun,  and  of  a  vessel  to  a  flying  bird,  have 
been  given  in  the  original  Anglo-Saxon  on  pp.  15,  17. 
Other  similes  compare  the  light  from  Grendel's  eyes  to  a 
flame,  and  the  nails  on  his  fingers  to  steel,  while  the  most 
complete  simile  says  that  the  sword,  when  bathed  in  the 
monster's  poisonous  blood,  melted  like  ice. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  poetry  uses  many  direct  and 
forcible  metaphors,  such  as  "  wave-ropes "  for  ice,  the 
"whale-road"  or  "swan-road"  for  the  sea,  the  "foamy- 
necked  floater  "  for  a  ship,  the  "  war-adder  "  for  an  arrow, 
the  "  bone-house  "  for  body.  The  sword  is  said  to  sing  a 
war  song,  the  slain  to  be  put  to  sleep  with  the  sword,  the 
sun  to  be  a  candle,  the  flood  to  boil.  War  is  appropriately 
called  the  sword-game. 

Parallelisms.  —  The  repetition  of  the  same  ideas  in 
slightly  differing  form,  known  as  parallelism,  is  frequent. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ANGLO-SAXON  POETRY  37 

The  author  wished  to  make  certain  ideas  emphatic,  and  he 
repeated  them  with  varying  phraseology.  The  first  sight 
of  land  is  important  to  the  sailor,  and  hence  the  poet  used 
four  different  terms  for  the  shore  that  met  Beowulf's  eyes 
on  his  voyage  to  Hrothgar :  land,  brimclifu,  beorgas,  s&- 
ncessas  (land,  sea-cliffs,  mountains,  promontories). 

This  passage  from  the  Phoenix  shows  how  repetition 
emphasizes  the  absence  of  disagreeable  things :  — 

"...  there  may  neither  snow  nor  rain, 
Nor  the  furious  air  of  frost,  nor  the  flare  of  fire, 
Nor  the  headlong  squall  of  hail,  nor  the  hoar  frost's  fall, 
Nor  the  burning  of  the  sun,  nor  the  bitter  cold, 
Nor  the  weather  over-warm,  nor  the  winter  shower, 
Do  their  wrong  to  any  wight." 1 

The  general  absence  of  cold  is  here  made  emphatic  by 
mentioning  special  cold  things:  "snow,"  "frost,"  "hail," 
"hoar  frost,"  "bitter  cold,"  "winter  shower."  The  ab- 
sence of  heat  is  emphasized  in  the  same  way. 

Saxon  contrasted  with  Celtic  Imagery.  —  A  critic  rightly 
says  :  "  The  gay  wit  of  the  Celt  would  pour  into  the  song 
of  a  few  minutes  more  phrases  of  ornament  than  are  to 
be  found  in  the  whole  poem  of  Beowulf."  In  three  lines 
of  an  old  Celtic  death  song,  we  find  three  similes  :  — 

"  Black  as  the  raven  was  his  brow ; 
Sharp  as  a  razor  was  his  spear ; 
White  as  lime  was  his  skin." 

We  look  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  in  vain  for  a  touch  like 
this :  — 

"  Sweetly  a  bird  sang  on  a  pear  tree  above  the  head  of  Guenn  before 
they  covered  him  with  a  turf."  2 

1  Brooke's  translation.          2  LlywarcKs  Lament  for  his  Son  Gwenn. 
HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  3 


38        FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

If  the  Saxon  repeats,  the  Celt  exaggerates  :  — 

u  More  yellow  was  her  head  than  the  flower  of  the  broom,  and  her 
skin  was  whiter  than  the  foam  of  the  wave,  and  fairer  were  her  hands 
and  fingers  than  the  blossoms  of  the  wood  anemone  amidst  the  spray 
of  the  meadow  fountain."  1 

Sometimes,  as  in  the  foregoing  passage,  the  Celtic  exag- 
geration is  pleasing,  but  it  is  often  ridiculous,  as  in  the 
account  of  the  fight  between  the  white-horned  and  brown 
bulls.  We  are  told  that  the  "sky  was  darkened  by  the 
turf  thrown  up  by  their  feet  and  by  the  foam  from  their 
mouths.  The  province  rang  with  their  roar  and  the  in- 
habitants hid  in  caves  or  climbed  the  hills."  We  might 
expect  from  this  the  story  of  the  Kilkenny  cats. 

In  order  to  produce  a  poet  able  to  write  both  A  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream  and  Hamlet,  the  Celtic  imagination 
must  blend  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  seriousness.  As  we  shall 
see,  this  was  accomplished  by  the  Norman  conquest 

ANGLO-SAXON  PROSE 

When  and  where  written.  —  We  have  seen  that  poetry 
normally  precedes  prose.  The  principal  part  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  poetry  had  been  produced  before  much  prose  was 
written.  The  most  productive  poetic  period  was  between 
650  and  825.  Near  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  the 
Danes  began  their  plundering  expeditions  into  England. 
By  800  they  had  destroyed  the  great  northern  monasteries, 
like  the  one  at  Whitby,  where  Caedmon  is  said  to  have 
composed  the  first  religious  song.  The  home  of  poetry 
was  in  the  north  of  England,  and  these  Danish  inroads 
almost  completely  silenced  the  singers.  What  prose  there 

1  Guest's  Mabinogion,  p.  219. 


BEDE  —  ALFRED  39 

was  in  the  north  was  principally  in  Latin.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Saxon  prose  was  produced  chiefly  in  the  south 
of  England.  The  most  glorious  period  of  Anglo-Saxon 
prose  was  during  Alfred's  reign,  871-901. 

Bede.  —  This  writer  (673-735)  has  slight  claims  to  be 
considered  in  a  history  of  English  literature,  for  all  of  his 
extant  work  is  in  Latin.  He  is  said  to  have  translated  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John  into  Saxon,  but  the  translation  is  lost. 
He  wrote  in  Latin  on  a  vast  range  of  subjects,  from  the 
Scriptures  to  natural  science,  and  from  grammar  to  history. 
He  has  given  a  list  of  thirty-seven  works  of  which  he  is 
the  author.  His  most  important  work  is  the  Ecclesiastical 
History,,  which  is  really  a  history  of  England  from  Julius 
Caesar's  invasion  to  731.  The  quotation  from  Bede's 
work  relative  to  Caedmon  (p.  27)  shows  that  Bede  could 
relate  things  simply  and  well.  He  passed  a  great  part  of 
his  life  at  the  monastery  of  Jarrow  on  the  Tyne. 

Alfred.  —  A  king  of  England  was  its  greatest  Anglo- 
Saxon  prose  writer.  Alfred,  who  reigned  from  871  to  901, 
is  rightly  surnamed  the  Great  from  every  point  of  view. 
Although  the  most  of  his  works  are  called  translations 
from  the  Latin,  he  has  yet  left  the  stamp  of  his  own  origi- 
nality and  sterling  sense  upon  them  all.  He  desired  to 
give  his  people  text-books  on  all  important  subjects,  and 
he  shrank  from  no  labor  in  accomplishing  his  purpose. 
He  consulted  all  accessible  authorities  and  made  altera- 
tions and  additions  to  suit  his  plan. 

He  prepared  a  text-book  of  geography  in  this  way.  He 
found  a  Latin  work  by  Orosius,  who  was  a  Spanish  Chris- 
tian of  the  fifth  century.  Here  was  a  mass  of  material, 
much  of  which  was  unsuited  to  Alfred's  purposes,  and  so 
he  omitted,  changed,  and  added.  He  interviewed  travelers 
from  the  far  North  and  inserted  some  original  matter. 


40       FROM  449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

These  additions  are  the  best  material  in  the  book,  and 
they  are  not  uninteresting  reading  now.  The  work  is 
known  as  Alfred's  Orosius. 

There  was  extreme  necessity  for  these  text-books,  since 
none  existed  in  the  native  tongue.  He  translated  Pope 
Gregory's  Pastoral  Rule  in  order  to  show  the  clergy  how 
to  teach  and  care  for  their  flocks.  Alfred's  own  words  at 
the  beginning  of  the  volume  show  how  great  was  the 
need  for  such  work  as  he  was  doing.  Speaking  of  the 
clergy,  he  says :  — 

"  There  were  very  few  on  this  side  Hutnber  who  would  know  how  to 
render  their  services  in  English,  or  so  much  as  translate  an  epistle  out 
of  Latin  into  English ;  and  I  ween  that  not  many  would  be  on  the  other 
side  Humber.  So  few  of  them  were  there,  that  I  cannot  think  of  so 
much  as  a  single  one,  south  of  Thames,  when  I  took  to  the  realm."1 

Alfred  produced  a  work  on  moral  philosophy  by  alter- 
ing and  amending  Boethius's  De  Consolation*  Philosophies. 
Boethius  was  a  Roman,  who  was  thrown  into  prison  and 
wrongfully  executed  about  525  A.D.  This  work  teaches 
that  a  wise  Power  rules  the  world,  that  a  fuller  knowledge 
of  untoward  events  would  reveal  their  wisdom,  and  that 
temporal  things  are  of  slight  worth  in  comparison  with 
eternal  welfare. 

A  text-book  of  English  history  was  made  by  translating 
portions  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History  from  the  original 
Latin. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle.  —  This  is  the  first  history  of 
any  branch  of  the  Teutonic  people  in  their  own  tongue. 
The  Chronicle  has  come  down  to  us  in  several  different 
texts,  according  as  it  was  compiled  or  copied  at  differ- 
ent monasteries.  The  Chronicle  was  probably  begun  in 

1  Earle's  translation. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  CHRONICLE  41, 

Alfred's  reign.  The  entries  relating  to  earlier  events  were 
copied  from  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History  and  from  other 
Latin  authorities.  The  Chronicle  contains  chiefly  those 
events  which  each  year  impressed  the  clerical  compilers  as 
the  most  important  in  the  history  of  the  nation.  This 
work  is  a  fountain  head  to  which  writers  of  the  history  of 
those  times  must  turn. 

A  few  extracts  (translated)  will  show  its  character:  — 

A.D.  449.  "This  year  .  .  .  Hengist  and  Horsa,  invited  by  Vorti- 
gern,  King  of  Britons,  landed  in  Britain,  on  the  shore  which  is  called 
Wappidsfleet ;  at  first  in  aid  of  the  Britons,  but  afterwards  they  fought 
against  them." 

806.  "  This  year  the  moon  was  eclipsed  on  the  Kalends  of  Septem- 
ber; and  Eardulf,  King  of  the  Northumbrians,  was  driven  from  his 
kingdom  ;  and  Eanbert,  Bishop  of  Hexham,  died." 

Sometimes  the  narrative  is  extremely  vivid.  Those  who 
know  the  difficulty  of  describing  anything  impressively  in 
a  few  words  will  realize  the  excellence  of  this  portraiture 
of  William  the  Conqueror  :  — 

1087.  "  If  any  would  know  what  manner  of  man  King  William  was, 
the  glory  that  he  obtained,  and  of  how  many  lands  he  was  lord ;  then 
will  we  describe  him  as  we  have  known  him.  .  .  .  He  was  mild  to 
those  good  men  who  loved  God,  but  severe  beyond  measure  to  those 
who  withstood  his  will.  ...  So  also  was  he  a  very  stern  and  a  wrath- 
ful man,  so  that  none  durst  do  anything  against  his  will,  and  he  kept 
in  prison  those  earls  who  acted  against  his  pleasure.  He  removed 
bishops  from  their  sees,  and  abbots  from  their  offices,  and  he  imprisoned 
thanes,  and  at  length  he  spared  not  his  own  brother,  Odo.  .  .  . 
Amongst  other  things,  the  good  order  that  William  established  is  not 
to  be  forgotten ;  it  was  such  that  any  man,  who  was  himself  aught, 
might  travel  over  the  kingdom  with  a  bosom-full  of  gold,  unmolested ; 
and  no  man  durst  kill  another.  .  .  .  He  made  large  forests  for  the 
deer,  and  enacted  laws  therewith,  so  that  whoever  killed  a  hart  or  a 
hind  should  be  blinded  .  .  .  and  he  loved  the  tall  stags  as  if  he  were 
their  father." 


42        FROM  449  A.D.   TO  THE  NORMAN   CONQUEST,  1066 

The  Chronicle  continues  until  1 1 54,  when  its  last  entry 
was  made  to  record  the  death  of  King  Stephen. 


The  most  flourishing  period  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  was 
between  650  and  825  A.D.  It  was  produced  for  the  most 
part  in  the  north  of  England,  which  was  overrun  by  the 
Danes  about  800.  These  marauders  destroyed  many  of 
the  monasteries  and  silenced  the  voices  of  the  singers. 

Among  the  poems  of  this  age,  we  may  emphasize  : 
(i)  the  shorter  scopic  pieces,  of  which  the  Far  Traveler, 
The  Seafarer,  The  Fortunes  of  Men,  and  The  Battle  of 
Brunanburh  are  important  examples ;  (2)  Beowulf,  the 
greatest  Anglo-Saxon  epic  poem,  which  was  probably 
composed  on  the  continent  and  brought  to  England  in 
the  memories  of  the  singers ;  (3)  the  C&dmonian  Cycle  of 
scriptural  paraphrases,  some  of  which  have  Miltonic  quali- 
ties ;  and  (4)  the  Cynewulf  Cycle,  which  shows  the  most 
variety  and  lyrical  excellence. 

The  subject  matter  of  the  poetry  is  principally  war, 
the  sea,  and  religion.  The  martial  spirit  and  love  of  the 
sea,  thus  early  shown,  are  typical  of  the  nation  that  has 
raised  her  flag  in  every  clime.  The  chief  qualities  of 
the  poetry  are  earnestness,  somberness,  the  consciousness 
of  the  approach  of  the  "inevitable  hour,"  and  strength 
rather  than  delicacy  or  melody.  Parallelisms  and  strong 
metaphorical  expressions  abound. 

Anglo-Saxon  prose  was  written  chiefly  in  the  southern 
part  of  England.  The  golden  period  of  prose  coincides 
with  Alfred's  reign,  871-901,  and  he  is  the  greatest  prose 
writer.  His  translations  of  Latin  text-books  for  his  peo- 
ple contain  excellent  additions  by  him.  The  Anglo-Saxon 


SUMMARY  43 

Chronicle  is  an  important  record  of  contemporaneous 
events  for  the  historian.  There  are  also  the  Homilies 
and  Colloquium  of  ^Ifric,  a  tenth  century  prose  writer; 
but  the  prose  as  a  whole  is  far  inferior  to  the  poetry. 

Anglo-Saxon  should  be  studied  not  only  because  it  is 
the  foundation  of  the  language  in  which  Shakespeare 
wrote,  but  also  for  its  own  intrinsic  merits.  We  can 
point  to  few  other  literatures  which  owe  less  to  outside 
influences,  or  which  at  a  like  stage  in  the  development 
of  the  race  possessed  as  much  power.  A  literature 
which  could  accomplish  so  much  under  such  unfavorable 
conditions  might  justly  have  awakened  great  expectations. 


REQUIRED   READINGS   FOR  CHAPTER  I 
HISTORICAL 

In  connection  with  the  progress  of  literature,  students  should  obtain 
for  themselves  a  general  idea  of  contemporary  historical  events  from  the 
pages  specified  in  any  of  the  following  named  works :  — 

Gardiner's  Students  History  of  England,  pp.  1-96;  Green's  Short 
History  of  the  English  People,  Chap.  I. ;  Underwood-Guest's  A  Hand- 
book of  English  History,  pp.  35-129;  Guerber's  Story  of  the  English, 
pp.  31-76;  Robertson's  Making  of  the  English  Nation,  pp.  7-78 
(Oxford  Manuals  of  English  History}  ;  Traill's  Social  England,  Vol.  I., 
pp.  116-230. 

LITERARY 

The  student  who  is  not  familiar  with  the  original  Anglo-Saxon 
should  read  the  translations  specified  below :  — 

Scopic  Poetry.1  —  Widsift  or  the  Far  Traveler,  translated  in  Mor- 
ley's  English  Writers,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  i-n. 

1  In  his  Education  of  the  Central  Nervous  System,  Chaps.  VII.-X.,  the 
author  has  endeavored  to  give 'some  special  directions  for  securing  definite 
ideas  in  the  study  of  poetry. 


44        FROM   449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

The  Seafarer,  translated  in  Morley,  II.,  21-26,  or  in  Morley's  Illus- 
trations of  English  Religion,  pp.  13-15,  or  in  Brooke's  English  Litera- 
ture from  the  Beginning  to  the  Norman  Conquest,  pp.  311,  312,  or  in 
Brooke's  History  of  Early  English  Literature,  pp.  362,  363. 

The  Fortunes  of  Men,  translated  in  Morley's  English  Writers,  II., 
pp.  32-37,  or  in  Morley's  Shorter  English  Poems,  pp.  8-u. 

Battle  of  Brunanburh,  Tennyson's  translation. 

What  light  do  these  poems  throw  on  (a)  the  life  of  the  scop  ?  (b)  the 
subject  matter  of  his  songs?  (c)  the  life  and  ideals  of  the  Anglo-Saxons? 

Beowulf. — This  important  poem  should  be  read  entire  in  one  of 
the  following  translations :  Earle's  The  Deeds  of  Beowulf,  Done  into 
Modern  Prose  (Clarendon  Press)  ;  Lumsden's  Beowulf,  an  Old  English 
Poem,  Translated  into  Modern  Rhymes ;  Morris  and  Wyatt's  The  Tale 
of  Beowulf',  Hall's  Beowulf,  Translated  into  Modern  Metres  (Student's 
edition,  paper,  30  cents).  Morley's  English  Writers,  I.,  278-310,  and 
Brooke's  History  of  Early  English  Literature,  pp.  26-73,  contain  trans- 
lations of  many  of  the  best  parts  of  Beowulf. 

How  does  the  sea  figure  in  the  action  of  the  poem?  Name  as  many 
spithets  as  possible  applied  to  the  sea.  How  does  nature  figure  in  the 
poem?  What  difference  is  there  in  the  treatment  of  nature  in  the 
poetry  of  to-day?  What  glimpses  are  given  of  the  life  of  women? 
Describe  the  three  funerals  in  Beowulf.  Is  there  any  analogy  between 
the  conflict  of  natural  forces  in  the  Norseland  and  Beowulf's  fight  with 
Grendel  ?  In  what  ways  does  the  poem  show  the  ideals  of  our  fore- 
fathers? Does  the  poem  teach  any  ethical  lesson? 

The  Caedmonian  Cycle.  —  This  has  been  translated  by  Thorpe,  but 
the  translation  is  out  of  print.  The  student. may  find  some  of  the 
strongest  passages  in  Morley's  English  Writers,  II.,  81-101,  or  in  Mor- 
ley's Illustrations  of  English  Religion,  pp.  5-9,  or  in  Brooke's  History 
of  Early  English  Literature,  pp.  290-340. 

Compare  these  selections  with  the  first  book  of  Paradise  Lost,  and 
note  any  likeness  in  imagery  and  thought.  Did  the  introduction  of 
Christianity  alter  the  character  of  the  Saxon  mind,  or  merely  change  the 
direction  of  its  energies?  Quote  passages  from  the  Ccedmonian  Cycle 
to  prove  your  conclusion.  Compare  this  Cycle  with  Beowulf. 

The  Cynewulf  Cycle.  —  Many  fine  selections  are  translated  in  Mor- 
ley's English  Writers,  II.,  206-241  ;  in  Brooke's  History  of  Early 
English  Literature,  pp.  371-443  ;  in  Brooke's  English  Literature  from 
the  Beginning  to  the  Norman  Conquest,  pp.  163-202  ;  and  in  the  Exeter 
Book,  translated  by  Israel  Gollancz  for  the  Early  English  Text  Society. 


READING   REFERENCES  45 

What  new  qualities  are  added  to  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  in  this  Cycle? 
What  old  qualities  are  retained?  Does  the  poetry  seem  more  modern 
in  any  respect?  Why  is  the  Phoenix  (Brooke's  History  of  Early  Eng- 
lish Literature,  pp.  428-430;  Gollancz's  Exeter  Book,  Part  I.,  pp.  201- 
241)  remarkable? 

General  Questions  on  Anglo-Saxon  Poetry.  —  What  most  striking 
passages  (a)  in  Beowulf,  (b)  elsewhere,  show  the  Saxon  love  of  war 
and  of  the  sea? 

Instance  the  most  striking  parallelisms  found  in  your  readings.  Give 
a  list  of  vivid  metaphors.  What  conspicuous  differences  do  you  find 
between  Anglo-Saxon  and  old  Celtic  literature?  (Morley's  English 
Writers,  I.,  165-239,  gives  a  sufficient  number  of  selections  from  old 
Celtic  literature  to  enable  the  student  to  answer  this  question.  See  also 
this  volume,  p.  37.)  What  excellences  and  defects  seem  to  you  most 
pronounced  in  Anglo-Saxon  verse? 

Prose.  —  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  and  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory are  both  translated  in  one  volume  of  Bohn's  Antiquarian  Library. 
The  most  interesting  part  of  Bede  for  the  student  of  literature  is  the 
chapter  relating  to  Caedmon  (Chap.  XXIV.,  pp.  217-220). 

In  the  Chronicle,  read  the  entries  for  the  years  871,  878,  897,  975, 
1087,  and  1137.  What  is  there  of  interest  in  these  selections?  Why  is 
the  Chronicle  specially  valuable  for  the  historian  ? 

The  qualities  of  Alfred's  prose  maybe  seen  in  the  passages  translated 
in  Brooke's  English  Literature  from  the  Beginning  to  the  Norman 
Conquest,  pp.  221-241,  and  in  Earle's  Anglo-Saxon  Literature,  pp.  186- 
206.  A  translation  of  Alfred's  Orosius  entire  is  given  in  Pauli's  Life 
of  Alfred  (Bohn's  Antiquarian  Library).  The  most  interesting  part 
of  Orosius  is  the  original  matter  describing  the  voyages  of  Ohthere 
and  Wulfstan,  pp.  249-255. 

What  guided  all  Alfred's  efforts  in  literature?  What  qualities  are 
most  manifest  in  his  prose  ?  Why  is  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  so  vastly 
superior  to  the  prose  ? 

WORKS   FOR   CONSULTATION  AND   FURTHER  STUDY 
(OPTIONAL) 

Ramsay 's.The  Foundations  of  England. 
Freeman's  Old  English  History. 
Turner's  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 


46        FROM   449  A.D.  TO  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066 

Grant  Allen's  Anglo-Saxon  England. 

Green's  History  of  the  English  People. 

Green's  Making  of  England. 

Green's  Conquest  of  England. 

Ten  Brink's  Early  English  Literature,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  1-115. 

Brooke's  History  of  Early  English  Literature  to  the  Accession  of 
King  Alfred,  500  pp.,  contains  many  metrical  translations  of  specimens 
of  the  best  Anglo-Saxon  poetry. 

Brooke's  English  Literature  from  the  Beginning  to  the  Norman 
Conquest,  338  pp. 

Earle's  Anglo-Saxon  Literature. 

Morley's  English  Writers,  Vols.  I.  and  II.,  contains  translations  of 
many  fine  passages  in  Anglo-Saxon  literature. 

Azarias's  The  Development  of  English  Literature. 

Taine's  English  Literature,  Book  I.,  Chap.  I. 

Jusserand's  Literary  History  of.  the  English  People  from  the  Origins 
to  the  Renaissance,  pp.  3-93. 

Arnold's  Notes  on  Beowulf. 

The  Exeter  Book,  edited  and  translated  by  Gollancz. 

Gurteen's  The  Epic  of  the  Fall  of  Man :  A  Comparative  Study  of 
Ccedmon,  Dante,  and  Milton. 

Bosworth  and  Waring's  Anglo-Saxon  Gospels. 

Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History  of  England,  and  The  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle,  i  vol.,  translated  by  Giles  in  Bonn's  Antiquarian  Library. 

Bohn's  Six  Old  English  Chronicles. 

Mabinogion  (a  collection  of  Welsh  fairy  tales  and  romances),  trans- 
lated by  Lady  Charlotte  Guest. 

Sidney  Lanier's  The  Boy^s  Mabinogion. 

Cook's  77/i?  Christ  of  Cynewulf.  (The  introduction  of  97  pages 
gives  a  valuable  account  of  the  life  and  writings  of  Cynewulf.) 


CHAPTER  II 

FROM  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST,  1066,  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH, 

1400 

The  Norman  Conquest.  —  The  overthrow  of  the  Saxon 
rule  in  England  by  William  the  Conqueror  in  1066  was 
an  event  of  vast  importance  to  English  literature.  The 
Normans  (Norsemen  or  Northmen),  as  they  were  called, 
a  term  which  shows  their  northern  extraction,  were 
originally  of  the  same  blood  as  the  English  race.  They 
settled  in  France  in  the  ninth  century,  married  French 
wives,  and  adopted  the  French  language.  In  1066  their 
leader,  Duke  William,  crossed  the  English  Channel 
with  an  army,  won  the  battle  of  Hastings,  and  became 
King  of  England. 

Characteristics  of  the  Normans.  —  The  intermixture  of 
Teutonic  and  French  blood  had  given  to  the  Normans 
the  best  qualities  of  both  races.  The  Norman  was 
nimble-witted,  highly  imaginative,  and  full  of  northern 
energy.  The  Saxon  possessed  dogged  perseverance,  good 
common  sense,  if  he  had  long  enough  to  think,  and  but 
little  imagination.  Some  one  has  well  said  that  the  union 
of  Norman  with  Saxon  was  like  joining  the  swift  spirit 
of  the  eagle  to  the  strong  body  of  the  ox,  or,  again,  that 
the  Saxon  furnished  the  dough,  and  the  Norman  the 
yeast.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  blending  of  these  neces- 
sary qualities  in  one  race,  English  literature  could  not 
have  become  the  first  in  the  world.  We  see  the  char- 
acteristics of  both  the  Teuton  and  the  Norman  in  Shake- 

47 


48  FROM   1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

speare's  greatest  plays.     A  pure  Saxon  could  not  have 
turned  from  Hamlet's  soliloquy  to  write:  — 

"Where  the  bee  sucks,  there  suck  I."1 


CHANGES  WROUGHT  IN  THE  LANGUAGE 

The  Emergence  of  Modern  English.  —  The  productions 
of  English  authors  during  the  three  centuries  after  the 
Norman  Conquest  are  of  more  philological  than  literary 
interest.  The  student  should  note  the  principal  changes 
in  the  language  because  the  relation  between  literature 
and  its  medium  of  expression  is  specially  intimate.  A 
great  literature  demands  a  rich  vocabulary  capable  of 
expressing  delicate  shades  of  difference  in  thought  and 
feeling.  A  musician  may  possess  the  highest  type  of 
ability,  but  if  he  is  compelled  to  perform  on  a  defective 
instrument,  his  music  will  show  the  shortcomings  of  its 
vehicle  of  expression.  The  period  of  growth  of  a  litera- 
ture and  its  language  cannot  be  neglected  by  one  who 
wishes  a  broad  comprehension  of  the  literary  masterpieces 
alone. 

Modern  English  literature  did  not  suddenly  make  its 
appearance  like  the  fabled  roses  which  sprang  full-blown 
wherever  the  feet  of  Venus  touched  the  soil.  The  lan- 
guage in  which  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare  wrote  was 
formed  in  a  conflict  in  which  no  quarter  was  given  or 
asked.  Two  great  languages,  the  Saxon  and  the  French, 
struggled  for  the  mastery.  The  contest  terminated  with 
the  survival  of  the  fittest  expressions  from  each.  In 
the  same  ranks  beside  the  Saxon  words  "mother"  and 
"home,"  stand  the  French  "duty"  and  "family." 

1  The  Tempest,  V,  I. 


CHANGES  WROUGHT  IN  THE  LANGUAGE  49 

The  student  will  the  more  intelligently  comprehend  the 
great  change  in  his  mother  tongue  if  he  looks  at  the 
transformation  as  an  evolutionary  process.  Zoology 
shows  that  when  animal  organs  become  unnecessary, 
they  tend  to  atrophy  and  to  pass  into  the  rudimentary 
stage  or  disappear  entirely,  and  that  those  organs  best 
adapted  to  further  the  welfare  of  the  animal  have  de- 
veloped. The  reason  why  other  branches  of  the  Teu- 
tonic language  have  not  developed  so  far  as  English  is 
because  their  environment  was  not  so  favorable,  since 
both  French  and  Latin  exercised  comparatively  small 
influence  in  their  growth. 

Three  Languages  used  in  England.  —  For  three  hundred 
years  after  the  Norman  Conquest,  three  languages  were 
widely  used  in  England.  The  Normans  introduced  French, 
which  was  the  language  of  the  court  and  the  aristocracy. 
William  the  Conqueror  brought  over  many  Norman 
priests,  who  used  Latin  almost  exclusively  in  their  serv- 
ice. The  influence  of  this  book  Latin  is  generally  under- 
estimated by  those  who  do  not  appreciate  the  power  of 
the  church.  The  Domesday  survey  shows  that  in  1085 
the  church,  with  her  dependents,  held  more  than  one 
third  of  some  counties. 

In  addition  to  the  Latin  and  the  French  (which  was  it- 
self principally  of  Latin  origin),  there  was,  thirdly,  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  to  which  the  middle  and  the  lower  classes 
of  the  English  stubbornly  adhered. 

The  Loss  of  Inflections.  —  Anglo-Saxon  was  a  language 
with  changing  endings,  like  modern  German.  If  a  Saxon 
wished  to  say  "good  gifts,"  he  had  to  have  the  proper 
case  endings  for  both  the  adjective  and  the  noun,  and 
his  expression  would  have  been  gode  giefa.  For  "the 
good  gifts,"  he  would  have  inflected  "the"  and  made  the 


50  FROM    1066  TO   CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

case  ending  of  "  good  "  different  from  what  it  was  when 
"  good "  was  not  preceded  by  an  article,  and  he  would 
have  said,  da  godan  giefa. 

The  Norman  Conquest  helped  to  lop  off  these  endings, 
which  German  has  never  entirely  lost.  We  no  longer 
decline  articles  or  ordinary  adjectives.  Instead  of  hav- 
ing our  attention  taken  up  with  thinking  of  the  proper 
endings,  the  mental  powers  are  left  free  to  attend  to  the 
thought  rather  than  to  the  vehicle  of  its  expression. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  nouns  like  ox,  oxen,  or  mouse, 
mice,  the  sole  inflection  of  nouns  is  the  addition  of  's,  s,  or 
es  for  the  possessive  and  the  plural.  Our  pronouns  are 
still  declined,  and  mistakes  are  frequent  in  their  use. 

It  should  be  emphasized  that  Anglo-Saxon  had  already 
begun  to  lose  some  of  its  inflections  before  the  Conquest, 
and  that  the  coming  of  the  Normans  merely  hastened  a 
development  which  would,  to  a  considerable  degree,  have 
ultimately  taken  place  without  their  influence.  Even 
with  this  influence,  the  dropping  of  inflections  was  not 
the  work  of  a  year,  but  of  several  centuries. 

Change  in  Gender.  —  Before  any  one  could  speak  Anglo- 
Saxon  correctly,  he  had  first  to  learn  the  fanciful  genders 
that  were  attached  to  nouns  :  "  trousers  "  was  feminine, 
"childhood"  masculine,  "child"  neuter.  The  Norman 
Conquest  helped  to  give  the  natural  genders  to  objects. 
The  German  still  retains  these  fanciful  genders.  A  critic 
thus  illustrates  the  use  of  genders  in  that  language  :  "  A 
German  gentleman  writes  a  masculine  letter  of  feminine 
love  to  a  neuter  young  lady  with  a  feminine  pen  and 
feminine  ink  on  masculine  sheets  of  neuter  paper,  and 
incloses  it  in  a  masculine  envelope  with  a  feminine  address 
to  his  darling,  though  neuter,  Gretchen.  He  has  a  mas- 
culine head,  a  feminine  hand,  and  a  neuter  heart." 


CHANGES  WROUGHT  IN  THE  LANGUAGE       51 

Prefixes,    Suffixes,    and    Self-explaining    Compounds.  — 

The  Norman  Conquest  was  instrumental  in  causing  the 
English  tongue  to  lose  much  of  its  power  of  using  pre- 
fixes. A  prefix  joined  to  a  well-known  word  changes  its 
meaning  and  renders  the  coining  of  a  new  term  unneces- 
sary. The  Anglo-Saxons,  by  the  use  of  prefixes,  formed 
ten  compounds  from  their  verb  flowan,  "to  flow."  Of 
these,  only  one  survives  in  our  "  overflow."  From  sittati, 
"to  sit,"  thirteen  compounds  were  thus  formed,  but  every 
one  has  perished.  A  larger  percentage  of  suffixes  was 
retained,  and  we  still  have  many  words  like  "wholesome- 
ness,"  "child-hood,"  "sing-er." 

The  power  of  forming  self-explaining  compounds  was 
largely  lost.  The  Saxon  compounded  the  words  for 
"  tree "  and  "  worker,"  and  said  treow-zvyrhta,  "  tree- 
wright,"  but  we  now  make  use  of  the  single  word 
"  carpenter."  We  have  replaced  the  Saxon  boc-craft, 
"book-art,"  by  "literature";  Tzfen-gldm,  "evening-gloom," 
by  "  twilight "  ;  mere-swln,  "  sea-swine,"  by  "  porpoise  "  ; 
eag-wrcec,  "  eye-rack,"  by  "  pain  in  the  eye  "  ;  leornung- 
cild,  "learning-child,"  by  "pupil."  The  title  of  an  old 
work,  Ayen-bite  of  In-wit,  "  Again-bite  of  In-wit,"  was 
translated  into  "  Remorse  of  Conscience."  Grund-weall 
and  word-hord  were  displaced  by  "foundation"  and  "vo- 
cabulary." The  German  language  still  retains  this  power 
and  calls  a  glove  a  "  hand-shoe,"  a  thimble  a  "  finger- 
hat,"  and  rolls  up  such  clumsy  compound  expressions  as 
Unabhangigkeitserklarung. 

We  might  lament  this  loss  more  if  we  did  not  remember 
that  Shakespeare  found  our  language  ample  for  his  needs, 
and  that  a  considerable  number  of  the  old  compounds 
still  survive,  as  home-stead,  man-hood,  in-sight,  break-fast, 
house-hold,  horse-back,  ship-man,  and  sea-shore. 


52  FROM    1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

Introduction  of  New  Words  and  Loss  of  Old  Ones.  —  Since 
the  Normans  were  for  some  time  the  governing  race, 
while  many  of  the  Saxons  occupied  comparatively  menial 
positions,  numerous  French  words  indicative  of  rank, 
power,  science,  luxury,  and  fashion  were  introduced. 
Many  titles  were  derived  from  a  French  source.  English 
thus  obtained  words  like  "sovereign,"  "royalty,"  "duke," 
"  marquis,"  "  mayor,"  and  "  clerk."  Many  terms  of  govern- 
ment are  from  the  French,  for  instance,  "parliament," 
"peers,"  "commons."  The  language  of  law  abounds  in 
French  terms,  like  "damage,"  "trespass,"  "circuit,"  "judge," 
"jury,"  "verdict,"  "sentence,"  "counsel,"  "prisoner." 
Many  words  used  in  war,  architecture,  and  medicine  also 
have  a  French  origin.  Examples  are  "fort,"  "arch," 
"mason,"  "surgery."  In  fact,  we  find  words  from  the 
French  in  almost  every  field.  "Uncle"  and  "cousin," 
"rabbit"  and  "falcon,"  "trot"  and  "stable,"  "money" 
and  "soldier,"  "reason"  and  "virtue,"  "Bible"  and 
"preach,"  are  instances  in  point. 

French  words  often  displaced  Saxon  ones.  Thus,  the 
Saxon  Hfelend,  the  Healer,  gave  way  to  the  French  Savior, 
wanhope  and  wonstead  were  displaced  by  despair  and  resi- 
dence. Sometimes  the  Saxon  stubbornly  kept  its  place  be- 
side the  French  term.  The  English  language  is  thus  espe- 
cially rich  in  synonyms,  or-  rather  in  slightly  differentiated 
forms  of  expression  capable  of  denoting  the  exact  shade  of 
thought  and  feeling.  The  following  words  are  instances  : 

SAXON:       FRENCH:  SAXON:  FRENCH: 

body,  corpse,  green,  verdant, 

folk,  people,  food,  nourishment, 

swine,  pork,  wrangle,  contend, 

calf,  veal,  fatherly,  paternal, 

worth,  value,  workman,  laborer. 


CHANGES   WROUGHT  IN  THE   LANGUAGE  53 

English  was  enriched  not  only  by  those  expressions 
gained  from  the  daily  speech  of  the  Normans,  but  also 
by  words  which  were  added  from  literary  Latin.  Thus, 
we  have  the  Saxon  "ask,"  the  Norman-French  "inquire" 
and  "question,"  and  the  Latin  "interrogate."  "Bold," 
"impudent,"  "audacious;"  "bright,"  "cheerful,"  "ani- 
mated;" "earnings,"  "wages,"  "remuneration  ;"  "short," 
"brief,"  "concise,"  are  other  examples  of  words,  largely 
synonymous,  from  the  Saxon,  the  Norman-French,  and 
the  Latin,  respectively. 

The  Changes  Slowly  Accomplished.  —  For  over  a  hun- 
dred years  after  the  Conquest,  but  few  French  words 
found  their  way  into  current  English  use.  This  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  Brut,  a  poem  of  32,250  lines, 
translated  from  a  French  original  into  English  about 
1205,  has  not  more  than  a  hundred  words  of  Norman-French 
origin. 

At  first  the  Normans  despised  the  tongue  of  the  con- 
quered Saxons,  but,  as  time  progressed,  the  two  races 
intermarried,  and  the  children  would  be  certain  to  learn 
some  Saxon  words  from  their  mothers  or  nurses.  On  the 
other  hand,  many  well-to-do  Saxons,  like  parents  in  later 
times,  would  have  their  children  taught  French  because 
it  was  considered  aristocratic. 

Until  1204  the  nobles  were  going  back  and  forth  to 
Normandy  to  estates  held  there,  and  it  was  necessary  for 
the  nobles  to  speak  French.  In  1204  King  John  lost 
Normandy,  and  in  the  next  reign  both  English  and 
French  kings  decreed  that  no  subject  of  the  one  should 
hold  land  in  the  territory  of  the  other.  This  narrowing 
of  the  attention  of  English  subjects  down  to  England, 
was  a  foundation  stone  in  building  up  the  supremacy  of 
the  English  tongue. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  4 


54  FROM   1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

In  1338  the  Hundred  Years'  War  between  France 
and  England  began.  In  Edward  the  Third's  reign 
(1327-1377),  it  was  demonstrated  that  one  Englishman 
could  whip  six  Frenchmen,  and  the  language  of  a  hostile 
and  partly  conquered  race  naturally  began  to  occupy 
a  less  high  position.  In  1362  Parliament  enacted  that 
English  should  thereafter  be  used  in  law-courts,  "  because 
the  laws,  customs,  and  statutes  of  this  realm,  be  not 
commonly  known  in  the  same  realm,  for  that  they  be 
pleaded,  shewed,  and  judged  in  the  French  tongue, 
which  is  much  unknown  in  the  said  realm." 

The  Fallow  Period.  —  Sometimes  a  language  increases 
its  strength  during  a  period  of  rest  from  literary  produc- 
tion, just  as  land  acquires  new  vigor  from  lying  fallow. 
If  the  Norman  Conquest  reduced  the  Saxon  language 
"  almost  to  a  peasant's  dialect "  and  kept  it  for  more 
than  two  centuries  in  that  position,  even  this  condition 
gave  additional  power  to  the  resulting  tongue.  Like 
Antaeus,  who  gained  sevenfold  strength  every  time  that 
he  was  thrown  to  the  earth  by  his  adversary,  this 
"  peasant's  dialect "  was  strong  because  it  developed 
in  the  soil  of  actual  life.  That  tongue  voiced  no  affecta- 
tions. It  was  the  language  of  common  sense  and  of 
the  heart,  and  their  vocabulary  contained  not  a  single 
insincere  or  high-flown  expression. 

The  qualities  developed  by  contact  with  earnest  life 
were  necessary  requisites  in  a  language  with  which  Shake- 
speare was  to  speak  to  the  common  heart  of  humanity, 
and  with  which  Scotland's  plowman  poet  was  to  charm 
the  peasant's  cot  and  the  palace  of  the  lord.  In  some  of 
Shakespeare's  greatest  plays,  we  shall  find  that  eighty- 
nine  per  cent  of  the  words  used  are  those  which  the  Saxon 
found  sufficient  to  voice  his  hopes,  fears,  loves,  and  woes. 


CHANGES   WROUGHT  IN  THE  LANGUAGE  55 

The  authorized  translation  of  the  Gospels  employs  over 
ninety  per  cent  of  words  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin. 

The  Superiority  of  the  Composite  Tongue.  —  While  we 
insist  on  the  truth  that  Anglo-Saxon  gained  much  of  its 
wonderful  directness  and  power  from  standing  in  such 
close  relations  to  earnest  life,  it  is  necessary  to  remem- 
ber that  many  words  of  Latin  origin  did,  by  an  ap- 
prenticeship at  the  fireside,  in  the  field,  the  workshop, 
and  the  laboratory,  equally  fit  themselves  for  taking 
their  place  in  the  language.  Such  words  from  Latin 
roots  as  "faith,"  "pray,"  "joke,"  "vein,"  "beast,"  "poor," 
"nurse,"  "flower,"  "taste,"  "state,"  and  "fool"  remain  in 
our  vocabulary  because  they  were  used  in  everyday  life. 

Pure  Anglo-Saxon  was  a  forcible  language,  but  it 
lacked  the  wealth  of  expression  and  the  flexibility  neces- 
sary to  respond  to  the  most  delicate  touches  of  the 
master  musicians  who  were  to  come.  When  Shakespeare 
has  Lear  say  of  Cordelia :  — 

"  Her  voice  was  ever  soft, 
Gentle,  and  low ;  an  excellent  thing  in  woman," 

we  find  that  ten  of  the  thirteen  words  are  Saxon,  but 
the  other  three  of  Romance  (French)  origin  are  as  neces- 
sary as  is  a  small  amount  of  tin  added  to  copper  to  make 
bronze.  Two  of  these  three  words  express  varying  shades 
of  quality.  When  Macbeth  asks  :  — 

"  Will  all  great  Neptune's  ocean  wash  this  blood 
Clean  from  my  hand?     No,  this  my  hand  will  rather 
The  multitudinous  seas  incarnadine, 
Making  the  green  one  red," 

the  Saxon  again  preponderates,  but  "multitudinous  "  seems 
in  one  sonorous  word  to  include  all  the  countless  waves 


56  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

of  the  seas  of  every  clime,  and  "incarnadine"  to  intensify, 
far  more  than  "  redden,"  the  idea  of  the  penetration  and 
the  magnitude  of  the  stain.  This  line  as  a  whole,  coming 
between  two  lines  of  pure  Saxon,  adds  not  only  variety 
but  also  sublimity. 

Lounsbury  well  says:  "There  result,  indeed,  from  the 
union  of  the  foreign  and  native  elements,  a  wealth  of 
phraseology  and  a  many-sidedness  in  English,  which  give 
it  in  these  respects  a  superiority  over  any  other  modern 
cultivated  tongue.  German  is  strictly  a  pure  Teutonic 
speech,  but  no  native  speaker  of  it  claims  for  it  any  supe- 
riority over  the  English  as  an  instrument  of  expression, 
while  many  are  willing  to  concede  its  inferiority." 

It  is  true  that  the  bone,  sinew,  and  framework  of  this 
composite  tongue  remain  Saxon,  but  it  is  also  true  that 
the  English  beloved  by  Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton 
was  something  more  than  bone  and  sinew.  That  English 
was  a  creature  of  flesh  and  blood  as  well.  With  all  her 
sinewy  strength,  she  possessed  rare  beauty,  grace,  and 
perfection  of  rounded  form. 

LITERATURE    OF    THE    TRANSITION    PERIOD,   FROM    THE 
NORMAN  CONQUEST  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH 

A  Literature  of  Dialects.  —  During  this  period  and  even 
until  printing  had  helped  to  render  the  language  stable, 
not  only  was  English  undergoing  a  transition,  but  the 
language  in  one  part  of  the  country  was  often  difficult  to 
be  understood  by  those  living  in  another  part.  Even  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  Caxton,  the  first  English  printer, 
was  sometimes  puzzled  to  know  which  dialect  to  place  in 
permanent  type.  In  one  of  his  Prefaces  he  says  that  a 
man  went  into  a  house  at  some  distance  from  his  native 


GEOFFREY  OF  MONMOUTH  57 

place  and  "axyd  after  eggys,"  but  the  good  wife  replied 
that  she  "coude  speke  no  frenshe."  She  had  mistaken 
his  English  dialect  for  French.  He  found  an  interpreter 
who  told  her  that  the  man  wanted  "eyren."  She  then 
brought  him  eggs. 

All  works  of  the  period  treated  in  this  chapter  were 
written  in  a  dialect.  In  such  a  small  country  as  England, 
this  fact  had  the  effect  of  lessening  the  circulation  of 
books  and  the  number  of  readers.  There  were  three  prin- 
cipal dialects  :  the  Northern,  spoken  north  of  the  river 
Humber;  the  Midland,  from  the  Humber  to  the  Thames; 
and  the  Southern  from  the  Thames  to  the  English  Chan- 
nel. It  was  the  Midland  dialect  which  the  genius  of 
Chaucer  helped  to  raise  from  its  provincial  rank  to  become 
the  national  language  of  England. 

A  Latin  Chronicler.  — -  One  chronicler,  Geoffrey  of  Mon- 
mouth,  although  he  wrote  in  Latin,  must  receive  some 
attention  because  of  his  vast  influence  on  English  poetry. 
He  probably  acquired  his  last  name  from  being  arch- 
deacon of  Monmouth.  He  was  appointed  Bishop  of  St. 
Asaph  in  1152  and  died  about  1154.  Unlike  the  majority 
of  the  monkish  chroniclers,  he  possessed  a  vivid  imagina- 
tion, which  he  used  in  his  so-called  History  of  the  Kings  of 
Britain. 

Geoffrey  pretended  to  have  found  an  old  manuscript 
which  related  the  deeds  of  all  British  kings  from  Brutus, 
the  mythical  founder  of  the  kingdom  of  Britain,  and  the 
great-grandson  of  ^Eneas,  to  Caesar.  Geoffrey  wrote  an 
account  of  all  British  kings  down  to  Cadwallo  in  689  with 
as  much  minuteness  and  gravity  as  Swift  employed  in 
the  Voyage  to  Lilliput  (p.  242).  Other  chroniclers  declared 
that  Geoffrey  lied  saucily  and  shamelessly,  but  his  book 
became  extremely  popular.  The  monks  could  not  then 


58  FROM   1066  TO  CHAUCER'S   DEATH,  1400 

comprehend  that  the  world's  greatest  literary  works  were 
to  be  products  of  the  imagination. 

In  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  History  of  the  Kings  of 
Britain  we  are  given  vivid  pictures  of  King  Lear  and  his 
daughters,  of  Cymbeline,  of  King  Arthur  and  his  Knights, 
of  Guinevere  and  the  rest  of  that  company  whom  later 
poets  have  immortalized.  It  is  probable  that  Geoffrey  was 
not  particular  whether  he  obtained  his  materials  from  old 
chroniclers,  Welsh  bards,  floating  tradition,  or  from  his  own 
imagination.  His  book  left  its  impress  on  the  historical 
imagination  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Had  it  not  been  for 
Geoffrey's  History,  the  dramas  of  King  Lear  and  Cymbeline 
might  never  have  been  suggested  to  Shakespeare. 

Layamon's  Brut. —  About  1155  a  Frenchman  named 
Wace  translated  into  his  own  language  Geoffrey  of  Mon- 
mouth's work.  This  translation  .fell  into  the  hands  of 
Layamon,  a  priest  living  in  Worcestershire,  and  he  pro- 
ceeded to  render  the  poem,  with  additions  of  his  own,  into 
the  Southern  English  dialect.  Wace's  Brut  has  15,300 
lines;  Layamon's,  32,250.  As  the  matter  which  Layamon 
added  is  the  best  in  the  poem,  he  is,  in  so  far,  an  original 
author  of  much  imaginative  power.  He  is  certainly  the 
greatest  poet  between  the  Conquest  and  Chaucer's  time. 

A  selection  from  the  Brut  will  give  the  student  an 
opportunity  of  comparing  this  transition  English  with 
the  language  in  its  modern  form :  — 

"  And  Ich  wulle  varan  to  Avalun :  And  I  will  fare  to  Avalon, 

To  vairest  alre  maidene,  To  the  fairest  of  all  maidens, 

To  Argante  Sere  quene,  To  Argante  the  queen, 

Alven  swiSe  sceone  ;  Elf  surpassing  fair ; 

And  heo  seal  mine  wunden  And  she  shall  my  wounds 

Makien  alle  isunde,  Make  all  sound, 

Al  hal  me  makien  All  hale  me  make 

Mid  halvveige  drenchen.  With  healing  draughts. 


LAYAMON  —  ORM  59 

And  seoSe  Ich  cumen  wulle  And  afterwards  I  will  come 

To  mine  kineriche  To  my  kingdom 

And  wunien  mid  Brutten  And  dwell  with  Britons 

Mid  muchelere  wunne."  With  much  joy. 

With  this,  compare  the  following  lines  from  Tennyson's 
The  Passing  of  Arthur  :  — 

"  .  .  .1  am  going  a  long  way 
To  the  island-valley  of  Avilion, 
Where  falls  not  hail,  or  rain,  or  any  snow, 
Nor  ever  wind  blows  loudly  ;  but  it  lies 
Deep-meadow'd,  happy,  fair  with  orchard  lawns 
And  bowery  hollows  crown'd  with  summer  sea, 
Where  I  will  heal  me  of  my  grievous  wound. 

He  passes  to  be  King  among  the  dead, 
And  after  healing  of  his  grievous  wound 
He  comes  again." 

Layamoh  employed  less  alliteration  thaji  is  found  in 
Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  He  also  used  an  occasional  rhyme, 
but  the  accent  and  rhythm  of  his  verse  are  more  Saxon 
than  modern.  When  reading  Tennyson's  Idylls  of  the 
King,  we  must  not  forget  that  Layamon  was  the  first 
poet  to  celebrate  in  English  King  Arthur's  deeds.  The 
Brut  shows  little  trace  of  French  influences,  and  not  more 
than  a  hundred  French  words  can  be  found  in  it. 

Orm's  Ormulum.  —  A  monk  named  Orm  wrote  in  the 
Midland  dialect  a  metrical  paraphrase  of  those  parts  of 
the  Gospels  used  in  the  church  on  each  service  day 
throughout  the  year.  After  the  paraphrase  comes  his 
metrical  explanation  and  application  of  the  Scripture. 

He  says :  — 

"  Diss  boc  iss  nemmnedd  Orrmulum 

ForrSi  "$att  Ormm  itt  wrohhte." 

This  book  is  named  Ormulum 
For  that  Orm  it  wrote. 


6O  FROM   1066  TO   CHAUCER'S   DEATH,   1400 

There  was  no  fixed  spelling  at  this  time.  Orm  generally 
doubled  the  consonant  after  a  short  vowel,  and  he  insisted 
that  any  one  who  copied  his  work  should  be  careful  to  do 
the  same.  We  shall  find  on  counting  the  syllables  in  the 
two  lines  quoted  from  him  that  the  first  line  has  eight;  the 
second,  seven.  This  scheme  is  followed  with  great  preci- 
sion throughout  the  poem,  which  employs  neither  rhyme 
nor  regular  alliteration.  Orm  used  even  fewer  French 
words  than  Layamon.  The  date  of  the  Ormulum  is  prob- 
ably somewhere  between  1200  and  1215. 

The  Ancren  Riwle.  —  About  1225  appeared  the  most 
notable  prose  work  in  the  native  tongue  since  the  time 
of  Alfred,  if  we  except  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  Three 
young  ladies  had  secluded  themselves  from  the  world  in 
Dorsetshire,  and  they  wished  rules  for  guidance  in  their 
seclusion.  An  unknown  author,  to  oblige  them,  wrote  the 
Ancren  Riwle  (Rule  of  Anchoresses).  This  book  lays 
down  rules  for  their  future  conduct  in  all  the  affairs  of  life, 
and  it  also  offers  much  religious  consolation. 

The  following  selection  shows  some  of  the  curious  rules 
for  the  guidance  of  the  nuns,  and  furnishes  a  specimen 
of  the  Southern  dialect  of  transitional  English  prose  in  the 
early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  :  — 

"  36,  mine  leoue  sustren,  Ye,  my  beloved  sisters, 

ne  schulen  hahben  no  best  shall  have  no  beast 

bute  kat  one.  .  .  .  $e  schulen  but  one  cat.  ...  Ye  shall 

beon  i-tlodded  four  si  Sen  be  cropped  four  times 

i5e  3ere,  uorto  lihten  ower  in  the  year  for  to  lighten  your 

hcaued.  .  .  Of  idelnesse  awakeneS  head.  ...  Of  idleness  ariseth 

muchel  flesshes  fondunge.  .  .  .  much  temptation  of  the  flesh.  .  .  . 

Iren  Set  HS  stille  gedere§  Iron  that  lieth  still  soon  gathereth 

sone  rust."  rust. 

The  keynote  of  the  work  is  the  renunciation  of  self. 
Few  productions  of  modern  literature  contain  finer  pictures 


THE  ANCREN   RIWLE 


6l 


of  the  Divine  love  and  sympathy.  Across  the  fierce  storm 
clouds  of  theology,  which  continued  to  sweep  the  heavens 
for  hundreds  of  years,  the  pages  of  the  Ancren  Riwle  re- 
flect the  rainbow  hues  of  the  Galilean's  compassion  for 
laboring  and  heavy-laden  humanity.  The  following  simile 
affords  an  instance  of  this  quality  in  the  work  :  — 


"  De  sixte  kunfort  is  "Set 
ure  Louerd,  hwon  he 
"Set  we  beo^S  itented,  he  plaieft  mid 
us,  ase  "Se  moder  mid  hire  junge 
-deorlinge;  vlifrS  from  him,  and 
hut  hire,  and  let  hit  sitten  one, 
and  loken  jeorne  abuten,  and  cleo- 
pien  Dame  !  dame  !  and  weopen 
one  hwule;  and  "Seonne  mid  i- 
spredde  ermes  leapeS  lauhwinde 
voro",  and  cluppeS  and  cusseft  and 
wipeiS  his  eien.  Riht  so  ure 
Louerd  let  us  one  iwurfien  ofter 
hwules,  and  wiSdraweS  his  grace 
and  his  kunfort,  "Set  we  ne  ivincleft 
swetnesse  in  none  "Singe  "Set  we  wel 
do1??,  ne  savur  ofheorte;  and  ftauh, 
iSet  ilke  point  ne  luve"S  he  us 
ure  leove  veder  never  fte  lesce, 
auh  he  deft  hit  for  muchel  luve 
•Set  he  haveS  to  us." 


The  sixth  comfort  is  that 
our  Lord,  when  he  suffers 
that  we  be  tempted,  he  plays  with 
us,  as  the  mother  with  her  young 
darling;  she  flees  from  it,  and 
hides  herself,  and  lets  it  sit  alone 
and  look  anxiously  about  and  cry 
"Dame!  dame!"  and  weep 
awhile ;  and  then  with  out- 
spread arms  leaps  laughing 
forth  and  clasps  and  kisses  it  and 
wipes  its  eyes.     Exactly  so  our 
Lord  leaves  us  alone  once  in  a 
while  and  withdraws  his  grace 
and  his  comfort,  that  we  rind 
sweetness  in  nothing  that  we  do  well, 
no  relish  of  heart;  and  notwithstanding, 
at  the  same  time,  he,  our  dear  Father, 
loves  us  nevertheless, 
but  he  does  it  for  the  great  love 
that  he  has  for  us. 


Professor  Sweet  calls  the  Ancren  Riwle  "  one  of  the  most 
perfect  models  of  simple,  natural,  eloquent  prose  in  our 
language."  The  work  occupies  a  prominent  place  in  the 
development  of  the  English  language.  A  philologist 
says :  "  If  it  be  true,  as  some  tell  us,  that  the  mingling 
of  the  Teutonic  and  Romance  in  our  tongue  makes  a 
happy  marriage,  we  see  in  the  author  of  the  Ancren 
Riwle  the  man  that  first  gave  out  the  bans."  Among  the 
words  of  French  origin  found  in  it,  we  may  instance : 


62  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

"dainty,"  "cruelty,"  "vestments,"  "comfort,"  "journey," 
"  mercer." 

Lyrical  Poetry.  —  About  the  year  1250  an  unknown 
author  wrote  in  the  Southern  dialect  a  fine  poem  entitled 
The  Oivl  and  the  Nightingale.  A  nightingale  is  singing 
upon  a  blossoming  bough,  when  she  spies  an  owl  sitting 
upon  a  dead  tree,  with  ivy  trailing  around  the  trunk.  The 
sight  of  the  lugubrious  bird  stops  the  nightingale's  song, 
and  she  calls  to  the  owl  to  take  her  uncanny  self  away. 
The  owl  defends  herself  and  points  out  her  own  excellent 
qualities.  The  nightingale  then  sings  a  beautiful  song  to 
put  the  hooting  owl  to  shame. 

A  debate  on  the  respective  merits  of  each  bird  follows. 
In  the  course  of  the  poem,  the  nightingale  gives  her 
spring  song,  which  shows  that  even  then  the  poets  were 
beginning  to  appreciate  the  beauties  of  nature.  It  should 
be  noticed  that  the  song  employs  the  modern  end  rhyme  :  — 

"  De  blostme  ginneS  springe  and  sprede 
Beofte  ine  treo  and  ek  on  mede ; 
De  lilie  mid  hire  faire  wlite 
WelcumeS  me,  Sat  Su  hit  wite, 
Bit  me  mid  hire  faire  bleo 
Dat  ich  schulle  to  hire  fleo; 
De  rose  also  mid  hire  rude, 
Dat  cumeS  ut  of  fte  iSorne  wude, 
Bit  me  'Sat  ich  shulle  singe 
Vor  hire  luve  one  skentinge." 

A  free  translation  of  this  would  be  :  — 

The  blossom  begins  to  spring  and  to  spread 

Both  in  the  tree  and  in  the  mead; 

The  lily  with  her  form  so  fair 

Doth  welcome  me,  you  are  aware, 

With  winsome  face  doth  bid  that  I 

On  airy  wings  should  to  her  fly ; 


ROBERT  MANNING  OF  BRUNNE  63 

The  rose  also  with  the  blush  of  morn, 
That  cometh  from  a  bush  of  thorn, 
Now  asks  of  me  that  I  shall  sing 
For  her  own  love  one  charming  thing. 

Another  lyric,  of  uncertain  date,  likewise  shows  a  study  of 
nature :  — 

"  Sumer  is  i-cumen  in  Summer  is  a-coming  in, 

Lhude  sing  cuccu  Loud  sing  cuckoo, 

Groweth  sed  and  bloweth  med  Groweth  seed  and  bloometh  mead, 

And  springeth  the  wde  nu.  And  springeth  the  wood  now. 

Sing  cuccu,  cuccu."  Sing  cuckoo,  cuckoo. 

Robert  Manning  of  Brunne.  —  We  have  now  come  to 
fourteenth  century  literature,  which  begins  to  wear  a  more 
modern  aspect.  Robert  Manning,  generally  known  as 
Robert  of  Brunne,  because  he  was  born  at  Brunne,  now 
called  Bourn,  in  Lincolnshire,  adapted  from  a  Norman- 
French  original  a  work  entitled  Handlyng  Synne  (Man- 
ual of  Sins).  This  book,  written  in  the  Midland  dialect  in 
1303,  discourses  of  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins  and  the  best 
ways  of  living  a  godly  life. 

A  careful  inspection  of  the  following  selection  from  the 
Handlyng  Synne  will  show  that,  aside  from  the  spelling, 
the  English  is  essentially  modern.  Most  persons  will  be 
able  to  understand  all  but  a  few  words.  He  was  the  first 
English  writer  to  use  the  modern  order  of  words.  The 
end  rhyme  is  also  modern.  A  beggar,  seeing  a  beast  laden 
with  bread  at  the  house  of  a  rich  man,  asks  for  food.  The 
poem  says  of  the  rich  man  :  — 

"  He  stouped  down  to  seke  a  stone,  He  stooped  down  to  seek  a  stone, 

But,  as  hap  was,  than  fonde  he  But,  as  chance  was,  then  found  he 

none.  none. 

For  the  stone  he  toke  a  lofe,  For  the  stone  he  took  a  loaf, 

And  at  the  pore  man  hyt  drofe.  And  at  the  poor  man  it  drove. 


64  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

The  pore  man  hente  hyt  up  belyue,      The  poor  man  caught  it  up  quickly, 
And  was  thereof  ful  ferly  blythe,       And  was   thereof  full  strangely 

glad, 

To  hys  felaws  fast  he  ran  To  his  fellows  fast  he  ran 

With  the  lofe,  thys  pore  man."          With  the  loaf,  this  poor  man. 

Oliphant  says :  "  Strange  it  is  that  Dante  should  have 
been  compiling  his  Inferno,  which  settled  the  course 
of  Italian  literature  forever,  in  the  selfsame  years  that 
Robert  of  Brunne  was  compiling  the  earliest  pattern 
of  well-formed  New  English.  .  .  .  Almost  every  one  of 
the  Teutonic  changes  in  idiom,  distinguishing  the  New 
English  from  the  Old,  the  speech  of  Queen  Victoria  from 
the  speech  of  Hengist,  is  to  be  found  in  Manning's  work. 
We  have  had  few  Teutonic  changes  since  his  day,  a  fact 
which  marks  the  influence  he  has  had  upon  our  tongue.  .  .  . 
Robert  of  Brunne,  the  Patriarch  of  the  New  English, 
fairly  well  foreshadowed  the  proportion  of  outlandish  gear 
that  was  to  be  the  common  rule  in  our  land  after  his  time. 
He  has  six  French  words  out  of  fifty  ;  a  little  later  Chau- 
cer was  to  have  eight  French  words  out  of  fifty ;  this  is  the 
proportion  in  Shakespeare's  comic  parts  ;  and  it  is  also  the 
proportion  in  the  everyday  talk  of  our  own  time." 

Mandeville's  Travels. — Sir  John  Mandeville,  who  is 
popularly  considered  the  author  of  a  very  entertaining 
work  of  travels,  states  that  he  was  born  in  St.  Albans  in 
1300,  that  he  left  England  in  1322,  and  traveled  in  the 
East  for  thirty-four  years.  His  Travels  relates  what  he 
saw  and  heard  in  his  wanderings  through  Ethiopia,  Persia, 
Tartary,  India,  and  Cathay.  What  he  tells  on  his  own 
authority,  he  vouches  for  as  true,  but  what  he  relates  as 
hearsay,  he  leaves  to  the  reader's  judgment  for  belief. 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  among  scholars  in  regard 
to  whether  any  such  traveler  as  Mandeville  existed.  Parts 


JOHN   WYCLIFFE  6$ 

of  the  work  attributed  to  him  have  been  proved  to  be 
a  compilation  from  the  writings  of  other  travelers.  A 
French  critic  says  wittily :  "  He  first  lost  his  character  as 
a  truthful  writer;  then  out  of  the  three  versions  of  his 
book,  French,  English,  and  Latin,  two  were  withdrawn 
from  him,  leaving  him  only  the  first.  Existence  has  now 
been  taken  from  him,  and  he  is  left  with  nothing  .at  all." 
But  no  matter  who  the  author  was,  the  book  exists.  More 
manuscripts  of  it  survive  than  of  any  other  work  except 
the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  most  entertaining  volume  of 
English  prose  that  we  have  before  1360.  The  sentences 
are  simple  and  direct,  and  they  describe  things  vividly :  — 

"  In  Ethiope  ben  many  dyverse  folk :  and  Ethiope  is  clept 1  Cusis. 
In  that  contree  ben  folk,  that  han  but  o  foot :  and  thei  gon  so  fast,  that 
it  is  marvaylle :  and  the  foot  is  so  large,  that  it  schadewethe  alle  the 
body  a3en2  the  Sonne  whanne  thei  wole3  lye  and  reste  hem."4 

Mandeville  also  tells  of  a  bird  that  used  to  amuse  itself  by 
flying  away  with  an  elephant  in  its  talons.  In  the  land  of 
Prester  John  was  a  valley  where  Mandeville  says  he  saw 
devils  jumping  about  as  thick  as  grasshoppers.  Stories  like 
these  make  the  work  as  interesting  as  Gulliver  s  Travels. 

The  so-called  Mandeville's  Travels  was  one  of  the  few 
works  which  the  unlearned  of  that  age  could  understand 
and  enjoy.  Its  consequent  popularity  was  so  great  as  to 
bring  a  large  number  of  French  words  into  familiar  use. 
The  native  "  againbought "  is,  however,  used  instead  of 
the  foreign  "redeemed." 

John  Wycliffe. — Wycliffe  (1324-1384)  was  born  at  Hips- 
well,  near  Richmond,  in  the  northern  part  of  Yorkshire. 
He  became  a  doctor  of  divinity  and  a  master  of  one  of 
the  colleges  at  Oxford.  Afterward  he  was  installed  vicar 

1  called.         2  against.         3  will.         4  them. 


66  FROM   1066  TO  CHAUCER'S   DEATH,  1400 


JOHN    WYCLIFFE 


of  Lutterworth  in  Leicestershire,  where  he  died.  In  his- 
tory he  is  principally  known  as  the  first  great  figure  in  the 
English  Reformation,  preceding  the  others  by  more  than 
a  century.  In  literature  he  is  best  known  for  the  first 
complete  translation  of  the  Bible,  —  a  work  that  exerted 
great  influence  on  English  prose.  All  the  translation  was 
not  made  by  him  personally,  but  all  was  done  under  his 
direction.  The  translation  of  the  most  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  thought  to  be  his  own  special  work.  He  is  the 
most  important  prose  writer  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
His  prose  had  an  influence  as  wide  as  the  circulation  of 
the  Bible.  The  fact  that  it  was  forced  to  circulate  in 


PIERS   PLOWMAN  67 

manuscript,  because  printing  had  not  then  been  invented, 
limited  his  readers,  but  his  translation  was,  nevertheless, 
read  by  many.  He  wrote  argumentative  religious  pam- 
phlets to  help  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  they  are 
excellent  specimens  of  energetic  fourteenth  century  prose. 

Of  his  place  in  literature,  Ten  Brink  says :  "  Wycliffe's 
literary  importance  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  extended  the 
domain  of  English  prose  and  enhanced  its  powers  of 
expression.  He  accustomed  it  to  terse  reasoning,  and 
perfected  it  as  an  instrument  for  expressing  rigorous 
logical  thought  and  argument ;  he  brought  it  into  the 
service  of  great  ideas  and  questions  of  the  day,  and  made 
it  the  medium  of  polemics  and  satire.  And  above  all,  he 
raised  it  to  the  dignity  of  the  national  language  of  the 
Bible." 

The  following  is  a  specimen  verse  of  Wycliffe's  transla- 
tion. We  may  note  that  the  strong  old  English  word 
"againrising"  had  not  then  been  displaced  by  the  Latin 
"  resurrection." 

"  Jhesu  seith  to  hir,  I  am  agenrisyng  and  lyf;  he  that  bileueth  in 
me,  he,  if  he  schal  be  deed,  schall  lyue." 

Piers  Plowman.  —  About  1 362  a  poem  was  written 
by  a  man  most  commonly  known  as  William  Langland. 
He  was  probably  born  at  Cleobury  Mortimer  in  Shrop- 
shire about  1332,  and  was  educated  as  a  cleric,  but  he 
never  became  a  fully  ordained  priest,  although  he  seems 
to  have  performed  certain  offices  in  connection  with  the 
church,  such  as  singing  at  funerals.  We  know  scarcely 
anything  of  his  life,  except  what  we  learn  indirectly  from 
his  Piers  Plowman. 

This  poem  opens  on  a  pleasant  May  morning  amid  rural 
scenery.  The  poet  falls  asleep  by  the  side  of  a  brook  and 


68  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

dreams.  In  his  dream  he  has  a  vision  of  the  world  pass- 
ing before  his  eyes,  like  a  drama.  The  poem  tells  what  he 
saw.  Its  opening  lines  are  :  — 

"  In  a  Corner  .reson  •  whan  soft  was  the  jonne 
I  s/iope l  me  in  .s^roudes  2  •  as  I  a  j//epe  3  were, 
In  7/abite  as  an  ^eremite  4  •  unholy  of  workes 
Went  wyde  in  bis  world  •  wondres  to  here 
Ac  on  a  May  ;//ornynge  •  on  J/aluerne  hulles  5 
Me  by/el  a/erly6  •  of /airy  me  thou^te 
I  was  wery  forwandred7  •  and  went  me  to  reste 
Under  a  £rode  £ank  •  b\  a  £ornes 8  side, 
And  as  I  /ay  and  /ened  9  •  and  /oked  in  he  wateres 
I  ^lombred  in  a  .rlepyng  •  it  svtey ved 10  so  merye." 

The  language  of  Piers  Plowman  is  a  mixture  of  the 
Southern  and  the  Midland  dialects.  It  should  be  noticed 
that  the  poem  employs  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  alliterative 
meter.  There  is  no  end  rhyme.  Piers  Plowman  is  the 
last  great  poem  written  in  this  way. 

The  actors  in  this  poem  are  largely  allegorical.  Ab- 
stractions are  personified.  Prominent  characters  are 
Conscience,  Lady  Meed  or  Bribery,  Reason,  Truth, 
Gluttony,  Hunger,  and  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins.  In  some 
respects,  the  poem  is  not  unlike  the  Pilgrim  s  Progress 
(p.  226),  for  the  battle  in  passing  from  this  life  to  the  next 
is  well  described  in  both  ;  but  there  are  more  humor,  satire, 
and  descriptions  of  common  life  in  Langland.  Piers  is  at 
first  a  simple  plowman,  who  offers  to  guide  men  to  truth. 
He  is  finally  identified  with  the  Savior. 

Throughout  the  poem,  the  writer  displays  all  the  old 
Saxon  earnestness.  His  hatred  of  hypocrisy  is  manifest 
on  every  page.  His  sadness,  because  what  is,  is  not  what 

1  arrayed.  2  garments.  8  shepherd.  *  hermit.  6  hills.  6  wonder. 
7  tired  out  with  wandering.  8  brook.  9  reclined.  10  sounded. 


JOHN   GOWER  69 

ought  to  be,  makes  itself  constantly  felt.  He  cannot 
reconcile  the  contradiction  between  the  real  and  the  ideal. 
In  attacking  the  hypocrisy  of  the  clergy  and  preaching 
the  excellency  of  a  life  of  good  deeds,  in  showing  how  men 
ought  to  progress  in  the  sphere  of  action  from  doing  well 
to  doing  better  and  doing  best,  —  "  Do-well,  Do-bet,  Do- 
best,"-— he  was  one  of  those  who  helped  to  lay  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Reformation. 

In  order  to  have  a  well-rounded  conception  of  the  life 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  Langland  must  be  read  as  well 
as  Chaucer.  Langland  was  the  poet  of  the  lower,  Chaucer 
of  the  upper,  classes.  Langland's  verse  gives  valuable 
pictures  of  the  life  of  the  common  people  and  shows  them 

working 

"  To  kepe  kyne  in  J>e  field,  J?e  corne  fro  f>e  bestes, 
Diken *  or  deluen2  or  dyngen 3  vppon  sheues,4 
Or  helpe  make  mortar  or  here  mukke  a-felde." 

Although  Langland  was  the  poet  of  the  common  people, 
he  used  almost  as  many  words  of  French  derivation  as 
the  more  aristocratic  Chaucer.  This  fact  shows  how 
thoroughly  the  French  element  had  become  incorporated 
in  the  speech  of  all  classes.  Langland  revised  his  great 
poem  twice,  and  he  has  left  three  texts  which  differ  con- 
siderably, although  the  general  tenor  of  all  is  the  same. 

John  Gower.  —  Gower,  a  very  learned  poet,  was  born  about 
1325  and  died  in  1408.  He  did  not  know  that  the  Midland 
dialect  would  become  the  language  of  all  England.  Gower 
was,  therefore,  undecided  in  what  language  to  write,  and 
so  he  tried  each  of  the  three  languages  used  in  England. 
His  first  principal  work,  the  Speculum  Meditantis,  was 
written  in  French ;  his  second,  the  Vox  Clamant  is,  in 
Latin ;  his  third,  the  Confessio  Amantis,  in  English. 

1  to  make  dykes  or  ditches.      2  to  dig.      8  to  thrash  (ding).      4  sheaves. 
HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  5 


FROM  1066  TO   CHAUCER'S   DEATH,   1400 


The  Confessio  Amantis  (Confession  of  a  Lover}  is  a  long 
poem,  in  the  nature  of  a  dialogue  between  a  lover  and 
his  confessor,  wherein  the  things  tending 
to  further  or  hinder  love  are  discussed. 
But  the  poem  is  principally  a  col- 
lection of  tales  about  love.     With 
the  exception  of  a  very  few  tales, 
the  Confessio  Amantis  is  rightly 
noted  for  its  dullness. 

The  Confessio  Amantis  con- 
tains one  hundred  and  twelve 
short  tales,  of  which  not  more 
than  three  are  interesting.  The 
story  of  KnigJit  Florent  is  his 
best.  The  Knight  has  forfeited 
his  life.  He  will  not  be  spared  unless  he  correctly  answers 
the  riddle  :  "What  do  women  most  desire?"  He  promises 
to  marry  any  woman  who  will  tell  him.  An  ugly  old  hag 
gives  him  the  right  answer,  "  mastery  in  love."  A  knight 
must  keep  his  word,  and  so  he  marries  her.  After  the 
ceremony  she  becomes  a  young  and  beautiful  woman. 


JOHN    GOWER 


GEOFFREY  CHAUCER,   13407-1400 

Life.  —  Chaucer  was  born  in  London  about  1340.  His 
father  and  grandfather  were  vintners,  who  belonged  to 
the  upper  class  of  merchants.  Our  first  knowledge  of 
Geoffrey  Chaucer  is  obtained  from  the  household  accounts 
of  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  daughter-in-law  of  Edward  III. 
Chaucer,  then  in  his  teens,  was  a  page  in  her  family.  An 
entry  shows  that  she  bought  him  a  fine  suit  of  clothes, 
including  a  pair  of  red  and  black  breeches.  Such  evi- 
dence points  to  the  fact  that  he  was  early  accustomed  to 


GEOFFREY  CHAUCER 


GEOFFREY    CHAUCER 


associating  with  the  nobility,  and  enables  us  to  understand 
why  the  subject  matter  of  his  poetry  should  differ  from 
Langland's. 

In  1359  Chaucer  accompanied  the  English  army  to 
France  and  was  taken  prisoner.  Edward  III.  thought 
enough  of  the  youth  to  pay  for  his  ransom  a  sum  equiva- 
lent to-day  to  about  $1200.  After  his  return  he  was  made 
valet  of  the  King's  chamber.  The  duties  of  that  office 
"  consisted  in  making  the  royal  bed,  holding  torches,  and 
carrying  messages."  Later,  Chaucer  became  a  squire. 

In  1370  he  was  sent  to  the  continent  on  a  diplomatic 
mission.  He  seems  to  have  succeeded  so  well  that  dur- 


/2  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

ing  the  next  ten  years  he  was  repeatedly  abroad  in  the 
royal  service,  and  he  visited  Italy  twice.  He  may  thus 
have  met  the  Italian  poet  Petrarch.  These  journeys 
inspired  Chaucer  with  a  desire  to  study  Italian  literature, 
a  literature  that  had  just  been  enriched  by  the  pens  of 
Dante  and  Boccaccio. 

We  must  next  note  that  Chaucer's  life  was  not  that  of  a 
poetic  dreamer,  but  of  a  stirring  business  man.  For  more 
than  twelve  years  he  was  controller  of  customs  for  Lon- 
don. This  office  necessitated  assessing  duties  on  wools, 
skins,  wines,  candles,  etc.  Only  a  part  of  this  work  could 
be  performed  by  deputy.  He  was  later  clerk  of  the  King's 
works,  and  while  on  his  way  to  oversee  the  repairs  on  a 
building,  Chaucer  was  twice  robbed.  His  repeated  selec- 
tion for  foreign  and  diplomatic  business  shows  that  he  was 
considered  sagacious  as  well  as  trustworthy.  Had  he  not 
kept  in  close  touch  with  life,  he  could  never  have  become 
such  a  great  poet.  In  this  connection  we  may  remark 
that  England's  second  greatest  writer,  Milton,  spent  his 
prime  in  attending  to  affairs  of  state.  Chaucer's  busy 
life  did  not  keep  him  from  attaining  third  place  on  the 
list  of  England's  poets. 

There  are  many  passages  of  autobiographical  interest  in 
his  poems.  People  noticed  that  he  was  a  student  of  books 
as  well  as  of  men,  as  these  lines  from  the  Hous  of  Fame 

"  For  whan  thy  labour  doom  al  is, 
And  hast  y-maad  thy  rekeninges, 
Instede  of  rest  and  newe  thinges, 
Thou  gost  hoom  to  thy  hous  anoon, 
And,  also  domb  as  any  stoon, 
Thou  sittest  at  another  boke, 
Til  fully  daswed l  is  thy  loke, 
And  livest  thus  as  an  hermyte."9 
1  dazed.      2  hermit. 


GEOFFREY  CHAUCER  73 

A  passage  from  the  Legende  of  Good  Women  emphasizes 
another  side  of  his  life.  He  had  a  sympathetic  apprecia- 
tion for  nature  as  well  as  for  men  and  books :  — 

"...  whan  that  the  month  of  May 
Is  comen,  and  that  I  here  the  foules l  singe, 
And  that  the  floures  ginnen'-2  for  to  springe 
Farwel  my  boke  and  my  devocioun  !  " 

Chaucer  was  pensioned  by  three  kings  :  Edward  III., 
Richard  II.,  and  Henry  IV.  Before  the  reign  of  Henry 
IV.,  Chaucer's  pensions  were  either  not  always  regularly 
paid,  or  they  were  insufficient  for  certain  emergencies,  for 
he  complained  of  poverty  in  his  old  age.  The  pension  of 
Henry  IV.  in  1399  was  ample,  and  in  that  year  Chaucer 
leased  a  house  in  the  garden  of  a  chapel  at  Westminster 
for  as  many  of  fifty-three  years  as  he  should  live.  He  had 
occasion  to  use  this  house  but  ten  months. 

One  day,  looking  wistfully  back  upon  the  joys  of  youth, 
he  wrote :  — 

"And  on  the  ground,  which  is  my  modres8  gate, 
I  knokke  with  my  staf,  bothe  erly  and  late, 
And  seye,4  ' Leve 5  moder,  leet  me  in!'"6 

In  1400  the  mother  heard  his  call,  and  he  was  laid  at  rest 
in  the  Poets'  Corner  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Chaucer's  Earlier  Poems.  —  Before  Chaucer  was  forty, 
he  had  probably  not  written  more  than  one  seventh  of  the 
35,000  lines  which,  in  round  numbers,  he  left  at  his  death. 
Before  forty  he  had  not  done  his  greatest  work,  for  he 
was  hampered  by  too  close  an  adherence  to  Latin  and 
French  models.  His  Dethe  of  Blaunche  the  Duchesse,  the 
wife  of  Edward  III.'s  son,  John  of  Gaunt,  shows  the 
influence  of  Ovid  and  of  the  French  school. 

1  birds.      2  begin.      8  mother's.      *  say.      6  dear.      6  Pardoner's  Tale, 


74  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

In  his  next  period,  Chaucer  studied  Italian  models,  and 
gradually  acquired  that  skill  which  enabled  him  to  produce 
the  masterpieces  of  his  third  period.  The  influence  of 
Boccaccio  and,  sometimes,  of  Dante  is  noticeable  in  the 
principal  poems  of  the  second  period,  —  the  Troilus  and 
Criseyde,  Parlement  of  Forties,  Hous  of  Fame,  and  Legende 
of  Good  Women.  The  Troilus  and  Criseyde  is  a  tale  of 
love  that  was  not  true.  The  Parlement  of  Foules  is  an 
allegorical  poem,  in  which  birds  are  represented  as  assem- 
bling to  decide  to  which  of  three  suitors  shall  be  awarded 
a  beautiful  female  eagle.  This  eagle  represents  Anne  of 
Bohemia,  and  the  successful  suitor  is  typical  of  King  Rich- 
ard II.  Lines  like  the  following  from  this  poem  show 
what  a  loving  observer  of  nature  Chaucer  was :  — 

"The  sparow,  Venus  sone,  and  the  nightingale 
That  clepeth  x  forth  the  fresshe  leves  newe ; 
The  swalow  mordrer  of  the  flye's  2  smale, 
That  maken  hony  of  floures  fresshe  of  hewe ; 
The  wedded  turtel,  with  his  herte  trewe, 
The  pecok,  with  his  aungels  fethres  brighte." 

The  pleasing  fancy  of  the  song  of  the  nightingale  awaking 
the  buds  from  their  sleep  has  not  been  surpassed  by  later 
poets  of  nature. 

The  Hous  of  Fame  is  an  unfinished  poem,  descriptive  of 
a  vision  of  a  vast  palace  of  ice  on  which  .the  names  of  the 
famous  are  carved  to  await  the  melting  rays  of  the  sun. 
The  Legende  of  Good  Women  is  a  series  of  stories  of  those 
who,  like  Alcestis,  were  willing  to  give  up  everything  for 
love.  In  A  Dream  of  Fair  Women  Tennyson  says  :  — 

"'The  Legend  of  Good  Women,1  long  ago 
Sung  by  the  morning-star  of  song,  who  made 
His  music  heard  below ; 

1  calleth.       2  bees. 


GEOFFREY   CHAUCER  75 

Dan  Chaucer,  the  first  warbler,  whose  sweet  breath 
Preluded  those  melodious  bursts  that  fill 
The  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth 
With  sounds  that  echo  still." 

In  this  series  of  poems  Chaucer  learned  how  to  rely  less 
and  less  on  an  Italian  crutch.  He  next  took  his  immortal 
ride  to  Canterbury  on  an  English  Pegasus. 


CANTERBURY    CATHEDRAL 


General  Plan. — The  majority  of  the  world  has  always 
been  more  interested  in  stories  than  in  any  other  form  of 
literature.  Chaucer  probably  did  not  realize  that  he  had 
such  positive  genius  for  telling  tales  in  verse  that  the  next 
five  hundred  years  would  fail  to  produce  his  superior  in 


76  FROM   1066  TO  CHAUCER'S   DEATH,    1400 

that  branch  of  English  literature,  but  he  knew  that  he 
enjoyed  telling  such  tales. 

All  that  Chaucer  needed  was  some  framework  into  which 
he  could  fit  the  stories  that  occurred  to  him,  and  make 
them  something  more  than  mere  stray  tales,  which  might 
soon  be  forgotten.  The  great  contemporary  Italian  story 
teller,  Boccaccio,  conceived  the  idea  of  representing  some 
of  the  nobility  of  Florence  as  fleeing  from  the  plague, 
and  telling  in  their  retirement  the  tales  which  he  used  in 
his  Decameron.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  if  Chaucer  ever 
knew  of  the  existence  of  the  Decameron. 

In  1170  Thomas  a  Becket,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
was  murdered  at  the  altar.  He  was  considered  both  a 
martyr  and  a  saint,  and  his  body  was  placed  in  a  splendid 
mausoleum  at  the  Cathedral.  It  was  said  that  miracles 
were  worked  at  his  tomb,  that  the  sick  were  cured,  and 
that  the  worldly  affairs  of  those  who  knelt  at  his  shrine 
prospered.  It  became  the  fashion  for  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men  to  go  on  pilgrimages  to  his  tomb.  As  rob- 
bers infested  the  highways,  the  pilgrims  usually  waited  at 
some  inn  until  there  was  a  sufficient  band  to  resist  attack. 
In  time  the  journey  came  to  be  looked  on  as  a  holiday 
which  relieved  the  monotony  of  everyday  life.  About  1385 
Chaucer  probably  went  on  such  a  pilgrimage.  To  furnish 
amusement,  as  the  pilgrims  cantered  along,  some  of  them 
may  have  told  stories.  The  idea  occurred  to  Chaucer  to 
write  a  collection  of  such  tales  as  the  various  pilgrims 
might  have  been  supposed  to  tell  on  their  journey.  The 
result  was  the  Canterbury  Talcs. 

Characters  in  the  Tales.  —  Chaucer's  plan  is  superior 
to  Boccaccio's,  for  only  the  nobility  figure  as  story  tellers 
in  the  Decameron.  The  Canterbury  pilgrims  represent 
all  ranks  of  English  life,  from  the  knight  to  the  sailor. 


GEOFFREY   CHAUCER 


77 


The  Prologue  to  the  Tales  places  these  characters 
before  us  almost  as  distinctly  as  they  would  appear  in 
real  life.  At  the  Tabard  Inn  in  Southwark,  just  across 


Front  an 


TABARD    INN 


the  Thames  from  London,  we  see  that  merry  band  of 
pilgrims  on  a  fragrant  April  day.  We  look  first  upon  a 
manly  figure  who  strikes  us  as  being  every  inch  a  knight. 
His  cassock  shows  the  marks  of  his  coat  of  mail. 

"At  mortal  batailles  hadde  he  been  fiftene. 

And  of  his  port  as  meke  as  is  a  mayde. 
He  never  yet  no  vileinye  ne  sayde 
In  al  his  lyf,  unto  no  maner  wight. 
He  was  a  verray  parfit,  gentil  knyght." 

His  son,  the  Squire,  next  catches  our  attention.  We 
notice  his  curly  locks,  his  garments  embroidered  with 
gay  flowers,  and  the  graceful  way  in  which  he  rides  his 


78  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

horse.  By  his  side  is  his  servant  the  Yeoman,  "clad  in 
cote  and  hood  of  grene,"  with  a  sheaf  of  arrows  at  his 
belt.  We  may  even  note  his  cropped  head  and  his  horn 
suspended  from  a  green  belt.  We  next  catch  sight  of  a 
Nun's  gracefully  pleated  wimple,  shapely  nose,  small 
mouth,  "eyen  greye  as  glas,"  well-made  cloak,  coral 
beads,  and  brooch  of  gold.  She  is  attended  by  a  second 
Nun  and  three  Priests.  The  Monk  is  a  striking  figure  :  — 

"His  heed  was  balled,  that  shoon  as  any  glas, 
And  eek  his  face  as  he  hadde  been  anoint. 
He  was  a  lord  ful  fat  and  in  good  point." 

There  follow  the  Friar  with  twinkling  eyes,  "the  beste 
beggere  in  his  hous,"  the  Merchant  with  his  forked  beard, 
the  Clerk  (scholar)  of  Oxford  in  his  threadbare  garments, 
the  Sergeant-at-Law,  the  Franklyn  (country  gentleman), 
Haberdasher,  Carpenter,  Weaver,  Dyer,  Tapycer  (tapes- 
try maker),  Cook,  Ship  man,  Physician,  Wife  of  Bath, 
Parish  Priest,  Plowman,  Miller,  Manciple  (purchaser  of 
provisions),  Reeve  (bailiff  of  a  farm),  Summoner  (official 
of  an  ecclesiastical  court),  and  Pardoner.  These  char- 
acters, exclusive  of  Baily  (the  host  of  the  Tabard)  and 
Chaucer  himself,  are  alluded  to  in  the  Prologue  to  the 
Tales  as 

"Wei  nyne  and  twenty  in  a  companye, 
Of  sondry  folk,  by  aventure  y-falle 
In  felawshipe,  and  pilgrims  were  they  alle, 
That  toward  Caunterbury  wolden  ryde." 

The  completeness  of  the  picture  of  fourteenth  century 
English  life  in  the  Canterbury  Tales  makes  them  abso- 
lutely necessary  reading  for  the  historian  as  well  as  for 
the  student  of  literature.  We  have,  for  instance,  a  better 
idea  of  fourteenth  century  seamen  after  reading  about 


GEOFFREY   CHAUCER  79 

Chaucer's  Shipman,  who  knew  all  the  havens  on  the 
western  coast  of  the  continent  and  every  creek  in  Britain 
and  Spain.  We  see  him  with  his  brown  face  as  he  steals 
wine  from  the  casks  in  his  cargo,  and  we  again  catch  a 
glimpse  of  him  as  he  turns  pirate,  when  a  good  opportunity 
offers,  and  makes  his  captives  walk  the  plank.  We  are 
given  an  interesting  picture  of  a  Pardoner  pretending  that 
pigs'  bones  are  the  bones  of  saints.  The  finest  character 
in  the  company  is  that  of  the  Parish  Priest,  who  attends 
to  his  flock  like  a  good  Samaritan :  — 

"  Cristes  lore,  and  his  apostles  twelve, 
He  taughte,  but  first  he  folwed  it  him-selve." 

Certainly  no  one  who  has  ever  read  the  Prologue  to  the 
Tales  will  question  Chaucer's  right  to  be  considered  a 
great  original  poet,  no  matter  how  much  he  may  have 
owed  to  foreign  teachers. 

The  Tales.  —  Harry  Baily,  the  keeper  of  the  Tabard 
Inn,  accompanied  the  Pilgrims,  and  he  proposed  that  each 
member  of  the  party  should  tell  four  tales,  two  going  and 
two  returning.  The  one  who  told  the  best  story  was  to 
have  a  supper  at  the  expense  of  the  rest.  '  The  plan 
thus  outlined  was  not  fully  executed  by  Chaucer,  for  the 
collection  contains  but  twenty-four  tales,  all  but  two  of 
which  are  in  verse. 

The  Knightes  Tale,  which  is  the  first,  is  also  the  best. 
It  is  a  very  interesting  story  of  love  and  chivalry.  Two 
young  Theban  noblemen,  Palamon  and  Arcite,  sworn 
friends,  are  prisoners  of  war  at  Athens.  Looking  through 
the  windows  of  their  dungeon,  they  see  walking  in  the 
garden  the  beautiful  sister  of  the  Queen.  Each  one 
swears  that  he  will  have  the  Princess.  Arcite  is  finally 
pardoned  on  condition  that  he  will  leave  Athens  and 


80  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

never  return,  on  penalty  of  death.  He  soon  finds  that  he 
loves  the  Princess  Emily  so  that  he  would  prefer  to  be  in 
the  Athenian  prison  where  he  could  see  her.  Reduced 
almost  to  a  skeleton,  he  disguises  himself,  goes  to  Athens, 
and  becomes  a  servant  in  the  house  of  King  Theseus. 
Finally  Palamon  escapes  from  prison,  and  by  chance  over- 
hears Arcite  moaning  half  aloud  his  lover's  woes.  The 
two  men  promptly  fight  and  are  caught  in  the  act  by  the 
King,  who  orders  them  killed.  The  Princess  intercedes 
for  them,  and  the  King  directs  them  to  return  in  a  year, 
each  one  with  a  hundred  of  the  bravest  knights  that  he 
can  find.  Each  shall  lead  his  forces  in  a  mortal  battle  in 
the  lists,  and  the  Princess  shall  be  awarded  to  the  one  who 
is  the  victor. 

On  the  morning  of  the  fight,  Palamon  goes  before  dawn 
to  the  temple  of  Venus  and  prays  that,  since  this  is 
a  case  of  love,  she  will  hear  his  prayer,  and  grant  him 
Emily.  The  goddess  promises  that  his  prayer  shall  be 
answered.  Arcite  at  the  same  time  steals  to  the  temple 
of  Mars  and  beseeches  the  god  to  grant  him  the  victory, 
since  this  is  a  case  of  war.  The  martial  deity  promises 
the  victory  to  Arcite. 

The  descriptions  of  the  temples,  and  the  remainder  of 
the  story,  should  be  read  by  the  student  in  the  original. 
Although  Boccaccio's  Teseide  furnished  the  general  plot 
for  the  Knightes  Tale,  Chaucer's  story  is,  as  Skeat  says, 
"to  all  intents,  a  truly  original  poem." 

The  other  pilgrims  tell  stories  in  keeping  with  their  pro- 
fessions and  characters.  Perhaps  the  next  best  tale  is  the 
merry  story  of  Chanticleer  and  the  Fox.  This  is  related 
by  the  Nun's  Priest.  The  Clerk  of  Oxford  tells  the  pa- 
thetic tale  of  Patient  Griselda,  and  the  Nun  relates  a 
touching  story  of  a  little  martyr. 


GEOFFREY   CHAUCER  8 1 

General  Characteristics  of  Chaucer's   Work  and  its  Effect 
upon  the  Language 

Chief  Qualities.  —  I.  His  descriptions  are  unusually 
clear-cut  and  vivid.  For  instance,  he  says  of  the  Friar :  — 

"  His  eyen  twinkled  in  his  heed  aright, 
As  doon  the  sterres  in  the  frosty  night." 

Our  eyes  and  ears  distinctly  perceive  the  jolly  Monk,   as 
he  canters  along  :  — 

"  And,  whan  he  rood,  men  might  his  brydel  here 
Ginglen  in  a  whistling  wind  as  clere, 
And  eek  as  loude  as  dooth  the  chapel-belle." 

II.  Chaucer's  kindly,  sympathetic  humor  is  especially 
characteristic.  We  can  see  him  looking  with  twinkling 
eyes  at  the  Miller,  "tolling  thrice";  at  the  Pardoner,  show- 
ing a  piece  of  the  sail  from  St.  Peter's  ship,  or  the  pigs' 
bones  in  place  of  those  of  a  saint ;  at  the  Squire,  keeping 
the  nightingale  company ;  at  the  Doctor,  prescribing  by 
the  rules  of  astrology.  The  Nun  feels  a  touch  of  his 

humor :  — 

"  Ful  wel  she  song  the  service  divyne, 

Entuned  in  hir  nose  ful  semely." 
Of  the  lawyer,  he  says  :  — 

"  No-wher  so  bisy  a  man  as  he  ther  nas, 
And  yet  he  semed  bisier  than  he  was." 

Sometimes  Chaucer's  humor  is  so  delicate  as  to  be  lost 
on  those  who  are  not  quick-witted.  Lowell  instances  the 
case  of  the  Friar,  who,  "  before  setting  himself  softly  down, 
drives  away  the  cat,"  and  adds  what  is  true  only  of  those 
who  have  acute  understanding :  "  We  know,  without  need 
of  more  words,  that  he  has  chosen  the  snuggest  corner." 


82  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

III.  Although  Chaucer's  humor  and  excellence  in  lighter 
vein  are  such  marked  characteristics,  we  must  not  forget 
his  serious  qualities,  for  he  has  the  Saxon  seriousness  as 
well  as  the  Norman  airiness.    As  he  looked  over  the  strug- 
gling world,  he  said  with  sympathetic  heart:  — 

"  Infinite  been  the  sorwes  and  the  teres 
Of  olde  folk,  and  folk  of  tendre  yeres."  1 

In  like  vein,  we  have :  — 

"  This  world  nis  but  a  thurghfare  ful  of  wo, 
And  we  ben  pilgrimes,  passinge  to  and  fro ; 
Deeth  is  an  ende  of  every  worldly  sore."  1 

"Her  nis  non  hoom,  her  nis  but  wildernesse. 
Forthe,  pylgrime,  forthe!  forthe,  beste  out  of  thi  stall 
Knowe  thi  contree,  look  up,  thank  God  of  al! "  2 

His  humor  is  often  a  graceful  cloak  for  his  serious  philos- 
ophy of  existence.  The  humor  in  the  Prologue  does  not 
impair  its  worth  to  the  student  of  fourteenth  century  life. 

IV.  The  largeness  of  his  view  of  human  nature  is  re- 
markable.    Some  poets  paint  one  type  of  men  accurately 
and  distort  all  the  rest,  either  intentionally  or  unintention- 
ally.    Chaucer  impartially  portrays  the  highest  and  the 
lowest,  the  honest  man  and  the  hypocrite.     The  pictures  of 
the  roguish  Friar  and  the  self-denying  Parish  Priest,  the  Ox- 
ford Scholar  and  the  Miller,  the  Physician  and  the  Ship- 
man,  are  painted  with  equal  fidelity  to  life.    In  the  breadth 
and  kindliness  of  his  view  of  life,  Chaucer  is  a  worthy 
predecessor  of  Shakespeare.    Dryden's  verdict  on  Chau- 
cer's poetry  is:  "Here  is  God's  plenty." 

V.  His  love  of  nature  is  noteworthy  for  that  early  age. 
The  quotations  on  pp.  73,  74,  show  this  characteristic.    Such 

1  Knightes  Tale.  2  Truth:  Balade  de  ban  Comeyl. 


GEOFFREY  CHAUCER  83 

lines  as  these  manifest  something  more  than  a  desire  for 
rhetorical  effect  in  speaking  of  nature's  phenomena :  — 

"  Now  welcom  somer,  with  thy  sonne  softe 
That  hast  this  wintres  weders  over-shake, 
And  driven  awey  the  longe  nightes  blake x ! "  2 

His  affection  for  the  daisy  has  for  five  hundred  years 
caused  many  other  people  to  look  with  fonder  eyes  upon 
that  flower. 

VI.  He  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  those  who  have 
attempted  to  tell  stories  in  melodious  verse.  Lowell 
justly  says :  "  One  of  the  world's  three  or  four  great  story 
tellers,  he  was  also  one  of  the  best  versifiers  that  ever 
made  English  trip  and  sing  with  a  gayety  that  seems  care- 
less, but  where  every  foot  beats  time  to  the  tune  of  the 
thought." 

What  Chaucer  did  for  the  English  Language.  —  Before 
Chaucer's  works,  English  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  language 
of  dialects.  He  wrote  in  the  Midland  dialect,  and  aided  in 
making  that  the  language  of  England.  Lounsbury  says  of 
Chaucer's  influence  :  "  No  really  national  language  could 
exist  until  a  literature  had  been  created  which  would  be  ad- 
mired and  studied  by  all  who  could  read,  and  taken  as  a 
model  by  all  who  could  write.  It  was  only  a  man  of  genius 
that  could  lift  up  one  of  these  dialects  into  a  preeminence 
over  the  rest,  or  could  ever  give  to  the  scattered  forces 
existing  in  any  one  of  them  the  unity  and  vigor  of  life. 
This  was  the  work  that  Chaucer  did."  For  this  reason  he 
deserves  to  be  called  our  first  modern  English  poet.  At 
first  sight,  his  works  look  far  harder  to  read  than  they 
really  are,  because  the  spelling  has  changed  so  much  since 
Chaucer's  day. 

1  black.  2  The  Parlcmcnt  of  Faults. 


84  FROM   1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

SUMMARY 

The  period  from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  the  death  of 
Chaucer  contains  one,  and  only  one,  of  the  world's  great 
authors,  —  Geoffrey  Chaucer.  But  the  time  is  important  be- 
cause it  gave  to  England  a  new  language  of  greater  flexi- 
bility and  power.  The  old  inflections,  formative  prefixes, 
and  capacity  of  making  self-explaining  compounds  were 
for  the  most  part  lost.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years 
after  the  Norman  Conquest,  Saxon  was  the  language  of  the 
hearth  and  the  field,  not  of  literature  and  amusement.  No 
language  was  ever  more  closely  linked  to  earnest  life  and 
feeling.  No  affectation  of  speech  survived  that  period  of 
trial,  but  the  Saxon  preserved  for  us  those  words  which 
caused  his  heart  to  throb  with  warmest  feeling,  words  like 
"mother,"  "home," ''hearth,"  "birth,"  "death," and  "love." 
Such  a  genuine  language  of  the  heart  enabled  Shakespeare 
to  speak  more  effectively  to  the  ear  of  all  time. 

To  supply  the  places  of  lost  words  and  to  express  those 
new  ideas  which  came  with  the  broader  experiences  of 
an  emancipated,  progressive  nation,  many  new  words 
were  adopted  from  the  French  and  the  Latin.  When 
the  time  for  literature  came,  Chaucer  found  ready  for  his 
pen  the  strongest,  sincerest,  and  most  flexible  language 
that  ever  expressed  a  poet's  thought. 

In  tracing  the  development  of  English  literature,  we  have 
noted  (i)  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  (Latin)  History  of  the 
Kings  of  Britain,  and  Layamon's  Brut,  with  their  stories 
of  Lear,  Cymbeline,  and  King  Arthur ;  (2)  the  Ormulum, 
a  metrical  paraphrase  of  those  parts  of  the  Gospels  used 
in  church  service;  (3)  the  Ancren  Riwle,  remarkable  for 
its  natural  eloquent  prose  and  its  noble  ethics,  as  well  as 
for  showing  the  development  of  the  language ;  (4)  the  lyr- 


READING   REFERENCES  85 

ical  poetry,  beginning  to  be  redolent  of  the  odor  of  the 
blossom  and  resonant  with  the  song  of  the  bird;  (5)  the 
Handlyng  Synne,  in  which  we  stand  on  the  threshold  of 
modern  English ;  (6)  Mandeville's  Travels,  with  its  enter- 
taining stories;  (7)  Wycliffe's  monumental  translation  of 
the  Bible ;  (8)  Langland's  Piers  Plowman,  with  its  pic- 
tures of  homely  life  and  its  intense  desire  for  higher  ideals ; 
(9)  Gower's  Confessio  Amantis,  a  dull  collection  of  tales 
about  love ;  and  (10)  Chaucer's  poetry,  which  stands  in  the 
front  rank  for  the  number  of  vivid  pictures  of  contempo- 
rary life,  for  humor,  love  of  nature,  melody,  and  capacity 
for  story  telling. 

In  brief,  the  334  years  following  the  Norman  Conquest 
are  remarkable  (a)  for  the  development  of  English  into 
the  greatest  of  the  world's  languages,  (^)  for  the  rising  of 
the  Reformation  spirit  and  for  the  translation  of  the  Bible, 
and  (c)  for  the  emergence  of  modern  English  in  one  of  the 
world's  poetic  masterpieces,  the  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chau- 
cer. His  line,  — 

"  The  lyf  so  short,  the  craft  so  long  to  lerne,"  * 

shows  that  English  poetry  could  still  look  at  life  through 
Saxon  eyes. 


REQUIRED   READINGS   FOR   CHAPTER   II 
HISTORICAL 

Gardiner,2  pp.  89-288;  Green,  Ghaps.  II.,  III.,  IV.,  V.;  Under- 
wood-Guest, pp.  130-311;  Guerber,  pp.  76-173;  Robertson,  pp.  79- 
108;  yutton's  King  and  Baronage,  pp.  8-112  (Oxford  Manuals  of 
English  History}  ;  Oman's  England  and  the  Hundred  Years'  War 

1  The  Parlement  of  Faults. 

2  For  full  titles  of  histories  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  6 


86  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S   DEATH,  1400 

(same  series),  pp.  7-96;  Freeman's  William  the  Conqueror  (200  pp., 
50  cents)  ;  Traill,  I.,  231-491,  li.,  1-276. 

LITERARY'I 

Lounsbury's  History  of  the  English  Language,  pp.  48-160,  gives  a 
good  account  of  the  linguistic  changes  following  the  Norman  Conquest. 

Mandeville's  Travels  may  be  read  in  modernized  form  in  Cassell's 
National  Library,  No.  10,  edited  by  Morley  (paper,  10  cents).  Read 
the  last  page  of  the  Prologue  and  pp.  168-177,  °r  substitute  the  selec- 
tions to  be  found  in  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  22-26. 
It  will  be  instructive  to  compare  as  products  of  the  story  teller's  art 
these  Travels  with  Gullivers  Travels. 

Selections  from  Wycliffe's  Bible  are  given  in  No.  107  of  Maynard, 
Merrill  &  Co.'s  English  Classics  (12  cents).  Compare  the  words  and 
forms  of  expression  in  Wycliffe's  translation  with  those  of  our  Author- 
ized Version. 

Morris  and  Skeat's  Specimens  of  Early  English,  Part  II.,  gives  in 
their  original  form,  with  notes  and  glossary,  selections  from  Mandeville's 
Travels.  Wycliffe's  Translation  of  the  Gospel  of  Mark,  Langland's  Piers 
the  Plowman,  Gower's  Confessio  Amantis.  Good  selections  from  Lang- 
land  and  Gower,  with  modernized  spelling,  may  be  found  in  Ward's 
English  Poets,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  96-101  and  107-113. 

Chaucer.  —  His  finest  production  is  the  Prologue  (Eclectic  English 
Classics,  American  Book  Co.,  Prologue  and  Knightes  Tale,  25  cents ; 
Ward's  English  Poets,  I.,  46-56),  which  should  be  read  and  re-read. 
The  student  should  be  able  to  give  a  clear-cut  description  of  each 
one  of  the  leading  pilgrims  and  to  answer  definitely  the  following 
questions :  — 

How  has  the  Prologue  added  to  our  knowledge  of  life  in  the  four- 
teenth century?  Give  examples  of  Chaucer's  vivid  pictures.  What 
specimens  of  his  humor  does  the  Prologue  contain?  Do  any  of 
Chaucer's  lines  in  the  Prologue  show  that  the  Reformation  spirit  was 
in  the  air,  or  did  Wycliffe  and  Langland  alone  among  contemporary 
authors  afford  evidence  of  this  spirit  ?  Compare  the  subject  matter  of 
Chaucer's  verse  with  Langland's.  What  qualities  in  Chaucer  save  him 
from  the  charge  of  cynicism  when  he  alludes  to  human  faults?  Does 

1  Every  school  library  should  own  Ward's  English  Poets,  4  vols.,  $4,  and 
Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  5  vols.,  $5.50. 


READING   REFERENCES  8/ 

the  Prologue  attempt  to  portray  any  of  the  nobler  sides  of  human 
nature  ?  Is  the  Prologue  mainly  or  entirely  concerned  with  the  person- 
ality of  the  pilgrims  ?  Has  Chaucer  any  philosophy  of  life  ?  Are  there 
any  references  to  the  delights  of  nature?  Note  any  passages  that  show 
special  powers  of  melody  and  mastery  over  verse.  Does  the  poem 
reveal  anything  of  Chaucer's  personality? 

The  student  who  has  the  time  at  this  point  should  also  read  one  or 
two  of  Chaucer's  delightful  tales,  e.g.,  The  Knightes  Tale  and  The 
Nonne  Preestes  Tale.  These  two,  together  with  the  Prologue,  may  be 
found  in  Morris's  Clarendon  Press  edition  (70  cents)  and  in  Corson's 
Selections  from  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  (90  cents).  Outside  of 
the  drama,  does  English  literature  contain  any  other  story  teller  in 
verse  who  can  be  classed  with  Chaucer? 


WORKS   FOR  CONSULTATION   AND   FURTHER   STUDY 
(OPTIONAL) 

Ramsay's  The  Foundations  of  England. 

Ten  Brink's  Early  English  Literature,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  1 19-367  ;  Vol.  II., 
pp.  3-206. 

Morley's  English  Writers,  Vols.  III.,  IV.,  V. 

Jusserand's  Literary  History  of  the  English  People,  from  the  Origins 
to  the  Renaissance,  pp.  97-438. 

Courthope's  History  of  English  Poetry,  Vol.  I. 

Lounsbury's  History  of  the  English  Language. 

Champney's  History  of  English. 

Morris's  Specimens  of  Early  English,  Part  I.,  contains  selections 
from  the  Ormulum,  Layamon's  Brut,  the  Ancren  Riwle,  and  The  Owl 
and  the  Nightingale.  Part  II.  contains  specimens  of  the  lyrics,  the 
Handlyng  Synne  of  Robert  Manning  of  Brunne,  Mandeville's  Travels, 
Langland's  Piers  the  Plowman,  Wycliffe's  Translation  of  St.  Mark, 
Gower's  Confessio  Amantis,  and  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales,  with 
Notes  and  Glossary. 

Sweet's  First  Middle  English  Primer  contains  extracts  from  the 
Ancren  Riwle  and  the  Ormulum. 

Jusserand's  Piers  Plowman. 

Skeat's  text  of  Piers  the  Plowman,  with  Glossary  and  Notes. 

Bosworth  and  Waring's  edition  of  the  Gospels  contains  the  Gothic 


88  FROM  1066  TO  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400 

and  the  Anglo-Saxon  text,  together  with  the  translations  by  Wycliffe 
and  Tyndale  (p.  98). 

Skeat's  Complete  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  6  vols.,  is  the  best 
edition.  Skeat's  Student' 's  Edition  of  same,  i  vol.,  has  the  same  text. 

Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  Annotated  and  Accented,  with  Illustra- 
tions of  English  Life  in  Chaucer's  Time,  by  John  Saunders. 

Pollard's  Primer  of  Chaucer. 

Lounsbury's  Studies  in  Chaucer,  3  vols. 

Ward's  Life  of  Chaucer,  in  English  Men  of  Letters  Series. 

Lowell's  My  Study  Windows  contains  one  of  the  best  essays  ever 
written  on  Chaucer. 

Minto's  Characteristics  of  English  Poets,  pp.  1-58  (Chaucer,  Lang- 
land,  Gower). 

Morley's  Early  English  Romances. 

Ellis's  Specimens  of  Early  English  Metrical  Romances. 

Jusserand's  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Fourteenth  Century. 

Cutts's  Scenes  and  Characters  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Jessop's  The  Coming  of  the  Friars. 

Cutts's  Parish  Priests  and  their  People  in  the  Middle  Ages  in 
England. 


CHAPTER   III 

FROM  CHAUCER'S  DEATH,  1400,  TO  THE  ACCESSION  OF 
ELIZABETH,  1558 

Reasons  for  Comparative  Lack  of  Progress  of  Fifteenth 
Century  Literature.  —  It  might  be  expected  that  the  fif- 
teenth century  would  show  the  effect  of  Chaucer's  quick- 
ening influence  and  produce  a  literature  of  surpassing 
interest.  Let  us  inquire  why  the  reverse  is  the  case. 

I.  No  genius  like  Chaucer  was  born ;  or,  if  there  was 
such   a   potential  genius,  his  talents  were   diverted   into 
channels  other  than  those  of  literature. 

II.  There  was  not  so  much  freedom  of  thought  in  the 
fifteenth  as  in  the   fourteenth   century.      Wycliffe   could 
write  his  polemical  tracts  then,  and  translate  and  interpret 
the  Bible,  but  his  followers  could  not  in  the  next  century. 
In   1401  the  first  Englishman  was   burned   at   the   stake 
because  of  individual  opinions  on  religious  matters.     From 
this  time  the  expenses  of  burning  heretics  are  sometimes 
found   in   the   regular  accounts  of   cities   and   boroughs. 
Literature    should   be   the   full   expression    of   a  nation's 
thought  and  feeling,  and  such  literature  did  not  flourish 
again  until  Elizabethan  days  ushered  in  more  freedom. 

III.  Chivalry,  the  moving  spirit  of  the  preceding  age, 
was  changing.     This  fact  necessitated  the  growth  of  some 
new  ideal.     The  increasing  use  of   gunpowder  gradually 
put  an  end  to  the  superiority  of  the  knight.     The  great 
castles  began  to  decline,  and  people  mingled  more  famil- 
iarly with  one  another.     There  was  no  longer  so  vast  a 

89 


90  FROM    1400  TO   ELIZABETH'S  ACCESSION,  1558 

gulf  between  the  rich  and  the  poor.  The  poor  man  with 
his  firearm  was  a  match  for  a  horse  and  a  rider.  The  rise 
of  the  common  people  was  soon  to  have  a  marked  influ- 
ence on  literature.  From  their  ranks  was  to  come  an 
audience  that  would  appreciate  and  support  Shakespeare. 

IV.  The  studies  of  the  Schoolmen  had  helped  to  un- 
dermine literature  and  make  it  repellent.     "  Schoolmen" 
is  merely  a  term  for  those  who  pursued  the  studies  of  the 
schools  or  universities.     Many  of  these  studies  finally  be- 
came  little  more  than  juggling   with  words   or   forming 
smoke  wreaths  of  abstractions.     The  scholars  took  noth- 
ing for  their  subject  and  talked  about  it  at  great  length. 
Some  of  their  subjects  were :    whether  all  children  in  a 
state  of  innocence  are  masculine ;  whether  God  ever  knows 
more  things  than  he  is  aware  of  ;  whether  one  angel  can 
occupy  at  the   same   time   precisely  the   same   space  as 
another  angel ;  whether  God  can  make  a  yardstick  without 
two  ends.     Science  brings  new  facts  into  being,  but  these 
wordy  gymnastics   accomplished   nothing.      Taine   says : 
"  Three  centuries  of  labor  at  the  bottom  of  this  black  moat 
added  not  one  idea  to  the  human  mind." 

V.  The   Wars   of  the    Roses,  or   the   struggle   of   the 
houses  of  Lancaster  and  York  for  the  throne,  broke  out  in 
1455  and  lasted  for  thirty  years.     During  this  time  many 
of  the  nobles  were  killed.      The  effects  of  this  civil  war  in 
depressing  literature  have  been  overestimated.     The  times 
of  Richard  II.  were  unsettled,  and  yet  Chaucer  wrote  then. 
However,  some  who  might  have  become  writers  may  have 
had  their  energies  diverted  in  another   direction    by  the 
war. 

Malory's  Morte  d'Arthur.  —  The  greatest  prose  work  of 
the  fifteenth  century  was  completed  in  1470  by  a  man 
who  styles  himself  Sir  Thomas  Malory,  Knight.  We 


MALORY'S   MORTE   D'ARTHUR  91 

know  nothing  of  the  author's  life,  but  he  has  left  as  a 
monument  a  great  prose  epic  of  the  deeds  of  King  Arthur 
and  his  Knights  of  the  Round  Table.  From  the  various 
French  legends  concerning  King  Arthur,  Malory  selected 
his  materials  and  fashioned  them  into  the  completest 
Arthuriad  that  we  possess.  While  his  work  cannot  be 
called  original,  he  displayed  rare  artistic  power  in  arran- 
ging, abridging,  and  selecting  the  various  parts  from 
different  French  works. 

Malory's  prose  is  remarkably  simple  and  direct.  Even  in 
the  impressive  scene  where  Sir  Bedivere  throws  the  dying 
King  Arthur's  sword  into  the  sea,  the  language  tells  the 
story  simply  and  shows  no  straining  after  effect :  — 

"And  then  he  threw  the  sword  as  far  into  the  water  as  he  might, 
and  there  came  an  arm  and  a  hand  above  the  water,  and  met  it  and 
caught  it,  and  so  shook  it  thrice  and  brandished.  And  then  vanished 
away  the  hand  with  the  sword  in  the  water.  ...  '  Now  put  me  into 
the  barge,'  said  the  King ;  and  so  he  did  softly.  And  there  received 
him  three  queens  with  great  mourning,  and  so  they  set  him  down,  and 
in  one  of  their  laps  King  Arthur  laid  his  head,  and  then  that  queen  said, 
' Ah,  dear  brother,  why  have  ye  tarried  so  long  from  me ? '" 

After  the  dusky  barge  has  borne  Arthur  away  from  mortal 
sight,  Malory  writes  :  "  Here  in  this  world  he  changed  his 
life."  A  century  before,  Chaucer  had  with  equal  simplic- 
ity voiced  the  Saxon  faith  :  - 

"  His  spiryt  chaungede  hous." 1 

Sometimes  this  prose  narrative,  in  its  condensation  and 
expression  of  feeling,  shows  something  of  the  poetic 
spirit.  When  the  damsel  on  the  white  palfrey  sees  that 
her  knightly  lover  has  been  killed,  she  cries  :  — 

1  Knightes  Tale. 


92  FROM    1400   TO   ELIZABETH'S   ACCESSION,  1558 

" '  O  Balin  !  two  bodies  hast  thou  slain  and  one  heart,  and  two  hearts 
in  one  body,  and  two  souls  thou  hast  lost.'  And  therewith  she  took 
the  sword  from  her  love  that  lay  dead,  and  as  she  took  it,  she  fell  to 
the  ground  in  a  swoon." 

Malory's  work,  rather  than  Layamon's  Brut,  has  been 
the  storehouse  to  which  later  poets  have  turned.  Many 
nineteenth  century  poets  are  indebted  to  Malory.  Tenny- 
son's Idylls  of  the  King,  Matthew  Arnold's  Death  of  Tris- 
tram, Swinburne's  Tristram  of  Lyonesse,  a,nd  William 
Morris's  Defence  of  Guinevere  were  inspired  by  the  Morte 
cT  Arthur.  Few  other  English  prose  works  have  had  more 
influence  on  the  poetry  of  the  Victorian  age. 

Scottish  Poetry.  —  The  best  poetry  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury was  written  in  the  Northern  dialect,  that  spoken 
north  of  the  river  Humber.  This  language  was  just  as 
much  English  as  the  Midland  tongue  in  which  Chaucer 
wrote.  Not  until  the  sixteenth  century  was  this  dialect 
called  Scotch. 

This  poetry  is  remarkable  for  showing  in  that  early  age 
a  genuine  love  of  nature.  Changes  are  not  rung  on 
some  typical  landscape,  copied  from  an  Italian  versifier. 
The  northern  poet  had  his  eye  fixed  on  the  scenery  and 
the  sky  of  Scotland.  About  the  middle  of  the  century, 
Robert  Henryson,  a  teacher  in  Dunfermline,  wrote:  — 

"  The  northin  wind  had  purifyit  the  air 
And  sched  the  misty  cloudis  fra  the  sky."  * 

This  may  lack  the  magic  of  Shelley's  rhythm  (p.  364), 
but  the  feeling  for  nature  is  as  genuine  as  in  the  latter 
poet's  lines :  — 

"  For  after  the  rain,  when  with  never  a  stain 
The  pavilion  of  heaven  is  bare."2 

1  Testament  of  Cresseid.  3  The  Cloud. 


SCOTTISH   POETRY  93 

William  Dunbar,  the  greatest  poet  of  this  group,  who 
lived  in  the  last  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  a  loving 
student  of  the  nature  which  greeted  him  in  his  northland. 
No  Italian  poet,  as  he  wandered  beside  a  brook,  would 
have  thought  of  a  simile  like  this  :  — 

"  The  stone's  clear  as  stars  in  frosty  night." l 

Dunbar  takes  us  with  him   on    a  fresh  spring   morning, 

where 

"  Enamelled  was  the  field  with  all  colours, 

The  pearly  dropped  shook  in  silver  showers,"1 

where  we  can  hear  the  matin  song  of  the  birds  hopping 
among  the  buds,  while 

"  Up  rose  the  lark,  the  heaven's  minstrel  fine."1 

Both  Dunbar  and  Gawain  Douglas  (i474?-i522),  the 
son  of  a  Scotch  nobleman,  had  keen  eyes  for  all  coloring 
in  sky,  leaf,  and  flower.  In  one  line  Dunbar  calls  our  at- 
tention to  these  varied  patches  of  color  in  a  Scotch  garden  : 
"purple,  azure,  gold,  and  gules  [red]."  In  the  verses  of 
Douglas  we  see  the  purple  streaks  of  the  morning,  the 
bluish-gray,  blood-red,  fawn-yellow,  golden,  and  freckled 
red  and  white  flowers,  and 

"  Some  watery-hued,  as  the  blue  wavy  sea."2 

Outside  the.  pages  of  Shakespeare,  we  shall  for  the  next 
two  hundred  years  look  in  vain  for  such  a  genuine  love  of 
scenery  and  natural  phenomena  as  we  can  find  in  fifteenth 
century  Scottish  poetry.  These  poets  obtained  many  of 
their  images  of  nature  at  first  hand,  a  quality  rare  in  any 
age. 

1  The  Golden  Targe.  *  Prologue  to  JZneid,  Book  XII. 


94  FROM    1400  TO   ELIZABETH'S  ACCESSION,  1558 

"Songs  for  Man  or  Woman,  of  All  Sizes."  —  When 
Shakespeare  shows  us  Autolycus  offering  such  songs  at  a 
rustic  festival,1  the  great  poet  emphasizes  the  fondness  for 
the  ballad  which  had  for  a  long  time  been  developing  a 
taste  for  poetry.  While  it  is  difficult  to  assign  exact  dates 
to  the  composition  of  many  ballads,  we  know  that  they 
flourished  in  the  fifteenth  century.  They  were  then  as 
much  prized  as  the  novel  is  now,  and,  like  it,  they  had  a 
story  to  tell.  The  verse  was  often  halting,  but  it  suc- 
ceeded in  conveying  to  the  hearer  tales  of  love,  adventure, 
and  the  supernatural.  These  ballads  were  sometimes 
tinged  with  pathos,  but  there  was  an  energy  in  the  rude 
lines  which  made  the  heart  beat  faster  and  often  stirred 
the  listeners  to  find  in  a  dance  an  outlet  for  their  emotions. 
Even  now,  with  all  the  poetry  of  centuries  from  which  to 
choose,  it  is  refreshing  to  turn  to  a  Robin  Hood  ballad  and 
look  upon  the  greensward,  hear  the  rustle  of  the  leaves  in 
Nottingham  forest,  and  follow  the  adventures  of  the  hero. 
We  read  the  opening  lines  :  — 

"  There  are  twelve  months  in  all  the  year, 

As  I  hear  many  say, 
But  the  merriest  month  in  all  the  year 
Is  the  merry  month  of  May. 

"  Now  Robin  Hood  is  to  Nottingham  gone, 

With  a  link  a  down,  and  a  day, 
And  there  he  met  a  silly  old  woman 
Was  weeping  on  the  way." 

Of  our  own  accord  we  finish  the  ballad  to  see  if  Robin 
Hood  rescued  her  sons,  who  were  condemned  to  death 
for  shooting  the  fallow  deer.  The  ballad  of  the  Nut- 
Brown  Maid  has  some  touches  which  are  almost 
Shakespearean. 

»  The  Winter's  Tale,  IV.,  4. 


BALLADS  95 

Some  of  the  carols  of  the  fifteenth  century  give  a  fore- 
taste of  Elizabethan  song.  One  carol  on  the  birth  of  the 
Christ-child,  beginning :  "  I  syng  a  of  a  mayden,"  contains 
stanzas  like  these,  which  show  artistic  workmanship, 
imaginative  power,  and,  above  all,  rare  lyrical  beauty  :  — 

"  He  cam  also  stylle 

to  his  moderes  bowr, 
As  dew  in  Aprille 

that  fallyt  on  the  flour. 

"  He  cam  also  stylle 

ther  his  moder  lay, 
As  dew  in  Aprille 

that  fallyt  on  the  spray." l 

We  saw  that  the  English  tongue  during  its  period  of 
exclusion  from  the  Norman  court  gained  strength  from 
coming  in  such  close  contact  with  life.  Although  the 
higher  types  of  poetry  were  for  the  most  part  wanting 
during  the  fifteenth  century,  yet  the  ballads  multiplied 
and  sang  their  songs  to  the  ear  of  life.  Critics  may  say 
that  the  rude  stanzas  seldom  soar  far  from  the  ground, 
but  we  are  again  reminded  of  the  invincible  strength  of 
Antaeus  so  long  as  he  kept  close  to  his  mother  earth. 
English  poetry  is  so  great  because  it  has  not  withdrawn 
from  life,  because  it  was  nurtured  in  such  a  cradle. 

When  Shakespeare  wrote  his  plays,  he  found  an  audi- 
ence to  understand  and  to  appreciate  them.  Not  only 
those  who  occupied  the  boxes,  but  also  those  who  stood 
in  the  pit,  listened  intelligently  to  his  dramatic  stories. 
The  ballad  had  played  its  part  in  teaching  the  humblest 
home  to  love  poetry.  These  rude  fireside  songs  were  no 
mean  factors  in  preparing  the  nation  'to  welcome  Shake- 
speare. 

1  Wright's  Songs  and  Carols  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  p.  30. 


96  FROM   1400  TO   ELIZABETH'S  ACCESSION,  1558 

The  Renaissance.  —  The  causes  leading  to  the  revival 
of  learning,  usually  called  the  Renaissance,  constitute  the 
chief  glories  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  first  part 
of  the  sixteenth.  We  must  remember  that  the  Renais- 
sance was  a  necessary  factor  in  giving  us  Shakespeare  in 
the  next  century.  Before  the  buds  and  the  flowers  start 
forth  in  the  spring,  the  warm  sun  has  shone  and  the 
showers  have  fallen  for  some  time.  .  They  apparently 
produce  no  result  for  a  long  while,  but  finally  the  soft 
green  leaves  will  clothe  the  barren  trees  and  the  meadows 
be  dotted  with  fragrant  flowers.  The  revival  of  learning 
stands  in  the  same  relation  to  Elizabethan  literature  as 
the  sun  and  showers  to  vegetation. 

There  were  several  prominent  causes  helping  to  usher 
in  the  Renaissance  :  — 

I.  The   art    of    printing   multiplied  books    and   made 
their  wisdom  accessible  to  a  larger  number.     About  1477 
William  Caxton  printed  the  first  book  in  England.     In 
the   intellectual   growth   of   a   nation,    it   would   be   diffi- 
cult to  overestimate  the  importance  of  printing.     When 
the  same  forms  of  speech  and  idioms  circulated  among 
all,  an  important  step  was  taken   in  permanently  fixing 
the  language.     Among  a  large  number  of  books,  Caxton 
printed   the    Canterbury  Tales,  and   thus  gave  Chaucer's 
genius  and   language  wider  influence.      When  we  speak 
of  English  books  before  this  time,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered  that   they  were   laboriously  copied   on   parchment, 
and  that  the  copies  were  consequently  few  and  costly. 

II.  The   capture   of    Constantinople   by  the   Turks  in 
1453  was  a  factor  in  hastening  the  influence  of   Grecian 
literature  on  western    Christendom.     Constantinople,  the 
capital   of   the    Eastern    Roman    Empire,  was  the   head- 
quarters of  Grecian  learning.     Because  of  the  remoteness 


THE  RENAISSANCE  97 

of  this  capital,  English  literature  had  not  been  greatly 
influenced  by  Greece.  When  Constantinople  fell,  many 
of  her  scholars  went  to  Italy,  taking  with  them  precious 
Grecian  manuscripts.  As  Englishmen  often  visited  Italy, 
they  soon  began  to  study  Grecian  masterpieces,  and  to  fall 
under  the  spell  of  Homer  and  the  Athenian  dramatists. 

III.  Science    was    gradually    developing.      Men   were 
asking  the  why  and  the  wherefore  of  all  things,  even  of 
those  beliefs  grounded  on  faith.     Copernicus  was  think- 
ing out  the   true   movements   of   the   solar   system,  and 
showing  that  the  universe  does  not  revolve  around  this 
world  as  a  center.     Men  began  to  demonstrate  that  the 
world  is  round  and  can  be  circumnavigated.     New  colleges 
were  established  at  both  Cambridge  and  Oxford. 

IV.  The  discovery  of  the  New  World  fired  the  imagi- 
nations of  men  and  made  the  most  wonderful  dreams  seem 
capable   of    realization.      It   is   hard   for   us  to-day,  with 
little  undiscovered  territory  except  near  the  Poles,  to  ap- 
preciate the  effect  that  the  finding  of  a  new  world  would 
have  upon  the  imaginations  and  the  ambitions  of  men. 

William  Tyndale,  I4go?-i536.  —  The  Reformation  was 
another  mighty  influence,  working  side  by  side  with  all  the 
other  forces  to  effect  a  lasting  change  in  English  history 
and  literature.  In  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
Martin  Luther  was  electrifying  Germany  with  his  demands 
for  church  reformation.  In  order  to  decide  which  religious 
party  was  in  the  right,  there  arose  a  desire  for  more 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  The  language  had  changed 
much  since  Wycliffe's  translation  of  the  Bible,  and,  besides, 
that  was  accessible  only  in  manuscript.  William  Tyndale 
was  a  clergyman  who  had  been  educated  at  both  Oxford 
and  Cambridge.  He  was  an  excellent  linguist  and  he  con- 
ceived the.  idea  of  giving  the  English  people  the  Bible  in 


98  FROM   1400  TO   ELIZABETH'S  ACCESSION,  1558 


their  own  tongue.  He  found  that  he  could  not  translate 
and  print  it  with  safety  in  England,  and  so  he  went  to  the 
continent,  where  with  the  help  of  friends  he  turned  the 
Bible  into  English  and  had  it  printed.  He  was  forced  to 
move  frequently  from  place  to  place,  and  he  was  finally 
betrayed  in  his  hiding  place  near  Brussels.  After  eighteen 
months'  imprisonment  without  pen  or  books,  he  was  stran- 
gled and  his  body  was  burned  at  the  stake. 

Of   his   translation,    Brooke   says  :   "  It  was  this   Bible 
which,  revised  by  Coverdale,  and  edited  and  re-edited  as 


WILLIAM  TYNDALE  99 

Cromwell's  Bible,  1539,  and  again  as  Cranmer's  Bible,  1540, 
was  set  up  in  every  parish  church  in  England.  It  got 
north  into  Scotland  and  made  the  Lowland  English  more 
like  the  London  English.  It  passed  over  into  the  Protes- 
tant settlements  in  Ireland.  After  its  revival  in  1611  it 
went  with  the  Puritan  Fathers  to  New  England  and  fixed 
the  standard  of  English  in  America.  Many  millions  of 
people  now  speak  the  English  of  Tyndale's  Bible,  and 
there  is  no  other  book  which  has  had,  through  the  Author- 
ized Version,  so  great  an  influence  on  the  style  of  English 
literature  and  the  standard  of  English  prose." 

The -following  verses  from  Tyndale's  version  will  show 
its  simplicity  and  directness  and  how  much  the  translation 
in  present  use  owes  to  this  :  — 

"Jesus  sayde  unto  her,  Thy  brother  shall  ryse  agayne. 

"  Martha  sayde  unto  hym,  I  knowe  wele,  he  shall  ryse  agayne  in  the 
resurreccion  att  the  last  daye. 

"  Jesus  sayde  unto  her,  I  am  the  resurreccion  and  lyfe ;  whosoever 
beleveth  on  me,  ye,  though  he  were  deed,  yet  shall  he  lyve." 

Italian  Influence :  Wyatt  and  Surrey.  —  During  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  (1509-1547),  the  influence  of  Italian 
poetry  made  itself  distinctly  felt.  The  roots  of  Eliza- 
bethan poetry  were  watered  by  many  fountains,  one  of 
the  chief  of  which  flowed  from  Italian  soil.  To  Sir 
Thomas  Wyatt  (1503-1542)  and  to  the  Earl  of  Surrey 
(1517—1547)  belongs  the  credit  of  introducing  from  Italian 
sources  new  influences  which  helped  to  remodel  English 
poetry  and  give  it  a  distinctly  modern  cast. 

These  poets  were  the  first  to  introduce  the  sonnet,  which 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  and  Wordsworth  employed  with  such 
power  in  after  times.  Blank  verse  was  first  used  in  Eng- 
land by  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  who  translated  a  portion  of 


100          FROM   1400  TO   ELIZABETH'S  ACCESSION,  1558 

Virgil's  j£Lneid  into  that  measure.  When  Shakespeare 
took  up  his  pen,  he  found  that  vehicle  of  poetic  expression 
ready  for  his  use. 

Wyatt  and  Surrey  adopted  Italian  subject  matter  as  well 
as  form.  They  introduced  the  poetry  of  the  amourists, 
that  is,  verse  which  tells  of  the  woes  and  joys  of  a  lover. 
We  find  Shakespeare  in  his  Sonnets  turning  to  this  sub- 
ject, which  he  made  as  broad  and  deep  as  life.  In  1557, 
the  year  before  Elizabeth's  accession,  the  poems  of  Wyatt 
and  Surrey  appeared  in  Tottel's  Miscellany,  one  of  the 
earliest  printed  collections  of  modern  English  poetry. 

SUMMARY 

While  the  period  between  the  death  of  Chaucer  and  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth  did  not  furnish  to  English  literature 
a  single  great  name,  the  nation  was  preparing  for  Eliza- 
bethan times.  The  influences  of  the  Renaissance  and  the 
Reformation  were  at  work.  The  invention  of  printing 
began  to  make  it  possible  for  the  best  literature  to  be 
given  to  the  cottage  and  the  palace.  The  passing  of  the 
knight  and  the  rise  of  the  common  people  helped  to  knit 
the  entire  nation  together  and  to  extend  the  influences  of 
the  revival  of  learning  and  the  religious  awakening. 

The  most  important  prose  works  are  Sir  Thomas 
Malory's  Morte  d' Arthur,  a  masterly  retelling  of  the 
Arthurian  legends,  and  Tyndale's  translation  of  the  Bible. 
The  best  poetry  was  written  in  Scotland,  and  this  poetry 
anticipates  in  some  measure  that  love  of  nature  which  is  a 
dominant  characteristic  of  the  last  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  age  is  noted  for  its  ballads,  which  aided  in 
developing  among  high  and  low  a  liking  for  poetry.  At 
the  close  of  the  period,  we  find  Italian  influences  at  work. 


READING   REFERENCES  IOI 

REQUIRED   READINGS   FOR   CHAPTER  III 
HISTORICAL 

Gardiner,1  pp.  289-427;  Green,  Chap.  VI.;  Underwood-Guest,  pp. 
312-426;  Guerber,  pp.  174-232;  Oman's  England  and  the  Hundred 
Years1  War,  pp.  96-159;  Powers's  England  and  the  Reformation, 
pp.  7-87;  Traill,  II.,  276-574,  III.,  1-303. 

LITERARY 

Malory.  —  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  72-74,  and 
the  Camelot  Series  edition  of  Malory's  History  of  King  Arthur,  pp. 
311-313,  contain  the  part  relating  to  the  death  (or  passing)  of  Arthur. 
This  should  be  compared  with  Tennyson's  7~he  Passing  of  Arthur. 
Are  the  finest  thoughts  in  the  poem  original  with  Tennyson? 

Early  Scottish  Poetry.  —  Selections  from  fifteenth  century  Scottish 
poetry,  showing  an  early  appreciation  of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  may 
be  found  in  Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  139,  151,  152,  164,  and 
165,  and  in  Fitzgibbon's  Early  English  Poetry  {Canterbury  Poets 
Series,  40  cents),  pp.  81-85,  and  121. 

What  shows  that  the  references  to  nature  are  not  merely  conven- 
tional? The  student  should  be  on  the  alert  to  notice  the  next  appear- 
ance of  poetry  which  shows  a  genuine  love  for  nature. 

Ballads.  —  The  student  will  find  in  Ward,  I.,  p.  210,  the  ballad  of 
Sir  Patrick  Spens;  p.  224,  The  Twa  Corbies;  and,  p.  239,  Robin 
Hood  Rescuing  the  Widow's  Three  Sons.  The  teacher  should  read  to 
the  class  parts  of  The  Nut-Brown  Maid  (Fitzgibbon's  Early  English 
Poetry,  pp.  155-167). 

What  qualities  in  the  ballad  caused  it  to  take  such  a  hold  on  the 
people?  Did  it  have  any  educating  power? 

Tyndale.  —  The  student  who  has  access  to  Bos  worth  and  Waring's 
Gospels,  containing  the  Anglo-Saxon,  WyclifFe,  and  Tyndale  versions, 
will  find  it  profitable  to  compare  these  with  the  version  now  in  use,  and 
to  observe  how  much  current  English  speech  owes  to  these  early  trans- 
lations of  the  Gospels.  A  specimen  of  Tyndale's  prose  is  given  in 
Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  I.,  185-187. 

Wyatt  and  Surrey.  —  A  characteristic  love  sonnet  by  Wyatt  may  be 

1  For  complete  titles  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  "] 


102          FROM   1400  TO  ELIZABETH'S  ACCESSION,  1558 

found  on  p.  251  of  Vol.  I.  of  Ward's  English  Poets,  and  two  by  Surrey 
on  p.  257.  A  specimen  of  the  first  English  blank  verse,  employed  by 
Surrey  in  translating  Virgil's  dEneid,  is  given  on  pp.  233,  234,  of  Fitz- 
gibbon's  Early  English  Poetry. 

Why  are  these  poets  called  amourists?  What  contributions  did 
they  make  to  the  form  of  English  verse?  What  foreign  influence  did 
they  help  to  usher  in  ? 


WORKS    FOR    CONSULTATION    AND    FURTHER    STUDY 

(OPTIONAL) 

Morley's  English  Writers,  Vols.  VI.  and  VII. 

Ten  Brink's  English  Literature,  Vol.  II.,  Wycliffe  to  Renaissance, 
pp.  209-234. 

Jusserand's  Literary  History  of  the  English  People  from  the  Origins 
to  the  Renaissance,  pp.  503-525. 

Gosse's  History  of  Modern  English  Literature,  pp.  33-72. 

Minto's  Characteristics  of  English  Poets,  pp.  69-130. 

Saintsbury's  Short  History  of  English  Literature,  pp.  157-218. 

Fitzgibbon's  Early  English  Poetry  (Canterbury  Poets  Series)  Intro- 
duction and  pp.  30-234. 

Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  114-262. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  50-234. 

Malory's  Le  Morte  d"*  Arthur,  edited  by  Sommer,  with  Essay  on 
Malory's  Prose  by  Andrew  Lang. 

Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  articles,  Malory,  Caxton,  Henry  - 
son,  Gavuain  Douglas,  Dunbar,  Tyndale,  IVyatt,  and  Surrey. 

Veitch's  The  Feeling  for  Nature  in  Scottish  Poetry. 

McLaughlin's  Mediceval  Life  and  Literature. 

Child's  English  and  Scottish  Popular  Ballads. 

Percy's  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry. 

Gummere's  Old  English  Ballads. 

Hazlitt's  Early  Popular  Poetry  of  England. 

Songs  and  Carols  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  edited  by  Warton. 

Carols  and  Poems,  edited  by  Bullen. 

The  Paston  Letters  (1422-1509),  3  vols.,  edited  by  Gairdner. 

Denton's  England  in  the  Fifteenth  Century  (excellent). 

Green's  Town  Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

The  High-water  Mark  of  the  World's  Poetry. —The 
poetry  of  the  Elizabethan  age  has  never  been  equaled  at 
any  other  time  in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  one  might  become  a  person  of  broad  culture 
from  the  study  of  only  two  works:  the  one,  the  Bible ;  the 
other,  the  writings  of  the  greatest  of  the  Elizabethans. 
Since  Shakespeare's  day,  there  have  been  many  improve- 
ments in  science,  but  no  writer  of  later  times  has  equaled 
him.  The  highest  compliment  that  we  can  pay  to  the 
literature  of  any  other  age  is  to  say  that  it  has  Elizabethan 
characteristics. 

Unlike  other  countries,  England  felt  the  strong  in- 
fluences from  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation  at 
one  and  the  same  time.  When  the  attractions  of  the  sun 
and  moon  unite  to  draw  the  tides  in  one  direction,  they 
reach  their  highest  point.  At  no  other  time  have  two 
forces  like  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation  combined 
to  stimulate  the  human  mind.  The  Elizabethan  imagina- 
tion took  at  the  flood  the  tide  raised  by  these  mighty 
forces,  and  that  tide  bore  the  English  drama  on  to  a 
Shakespearean  fortune. 

We  must  proceed  to  note  specifically  the  causes  which 
conspired  to  produce  such  a  glorious  literature  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth.  We  shall  seek  them  in  the  expansion 
of  both  the  New  and  the  Old  World,  in  the  greater  free- 

103 


104  THE  AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 

dom  of  thought,  in  the  democratic  and  patriotic  spirit,  in 
the  desire  born  of  fuller  knowledge  to  live  a  life  as  varied 
and  as  complete  as  possible,  and  in  the  awakening  of 
the  imagination  to  grasp  Ufa's  newly  suggested  and  un- 
fathomed  possibilities,  and  to  express  them  in  poetry  of 
sufficient  fullness  and  depth  to  include  all  human  aspira- 
tion. 

The  Effect  of  the  Exploration  of  the  New  World. —  A 
New  World  had  been  previously  discovered,  but  many  of 
its  wonders  had  not  been  explored  until  Elizabethan  times. 
In  the  wonderful  land  beyond  the  sea,  there  seemed  to  be 
everything  necessary  to  usher  in  that  Utopian  age  for 
which  men  had  so  long  sighed.  There  were  precious 
stones  and  gold  in  quantities  that  promised  wealth  and 
enjoyment  for  all.  There  was  the  fabled  Fountain  of 
Youth  that  would  drive  away  the  pains  and  decrepitude 
of  old  age  and  enable  all  again  to  enjoy  the  promised  en- 
chantments of  the  new  Utopia.  At  home  things  might 
be  prosaic,  slow  of  movement,  and  obtained  only  by  such 
wearying  toil  as  to  preclude  enjoyment  of  them  when 
secured.  But  this  would  not  be  the  case  in  the  fairy- 
land of  the  New  World. 

There  was  the  absolute  proof  sufficient  to  satisfy  the 
most  skeptical  that  the  New  World  was  a  wonderful  land 
of  plenty.  When  Shakespeare  was  in  his  teens,  Sir 
Francis  Drake,  the  first  Englishman  to  circumnavigate  the 
world,  returned  from  his  voyage.  Besides  what  he  kept 
for  himself,  he  placed  in  the  Tower  for  the  use  of  the 
Queen  twenty  tons  of  silver  bullion,  huge  blocks  of  gold, 
and  many  pearls,  emeralds,  and  other  precious  stones. 
The  New  World  was  a  land  of  sufficient  promise  to  spur 
the  ambition  and  quicken  the  imagination  of  the  Eliza- 
bethans. Even  their  third-rate  poets  could  write  :  — 


EXPLORATION   OF  THE  NEW   WORLD  1 05 

"Xanthus  shall  run  liquid  gold  for  thee  to  wash  thy  hands  ; 
And  if  thou  like  to  tend  thy  flock  and  not  from  them  to  fly, 
Their  fleeces  shall  be  curle'd  gold  to  please  their  master's  eye." 1 

The  Expansion  of  the  Old  World.  —  When  we  emphasize 
the  influence  of  the  wonders  of  the  New  World  upon 
the  imagination,  we  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  the 
Old  World  was  expanding  more  than  the  New.  Never 
before  had  traveling  been  so  popular.  Englishmen  went 
to  Italy,  felt  the  spell  of  her  literature  and  art,  and 
came  home  to  spread  Italian  influence.  A  contemporary 
writer  on  education  speaks  of  "  the  enchantments  of  Circe, 
brought  out  of  Italy  "  to  mold  the  thought  and  manners 
of  English  youth.  Every  time  England  felt  a  new  stim- 
ulus from  the  literature  of  another  great  nation,  she  was 
receiving  advantages  from  the  expansion  of  the  Old  World. 

The  powerful  example  of  Queen  Elizabeth  aroused  in 
the  English  people  a  desire  to  learn  the  best  things  from 
every  nation.  Although  Italian  influence  was  in  the  as- 
cendency during  the  sixteenth  century,  other  literatures 
were  studied.  A  quotation  from  Roger  Ascham's  Schole- 
master,  a  distinguished  educational  work  (published  in 
1570),  will  show  what  languages  were  on  the  fashionable 
list.  He  had  been  the  Queen's  tutor,  and  he  says  :  — 

"Yea,  I  beleue,  that  beside  her  perfit  readines,  in  Latin,  Italian, 
French,  and  Spanish,  she  readeth  here  now  at  Windsore  more  Greeke 
euery  day,  than  some  Prebendarie  of  this  Chirch  doth  read  Latin  in  a 
whole  weeke." 

We  thus  see  that  learning  was  no  longer  confined  to  the 
church,  that  even  the  laity  might  be  more  energetic  stu- 
dents than  churchmen,  that  the  royal  example  welcomed 
learning  from  every  land,  and  that  Elizabethan  England 

1  Peele  :  The  Arraignment  of  Paris,  II.,  I. 


106  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

anticipated  the  age  of  Victoria  in  teaching  Greek  to 
women. 

Nothing  contributed  to  this  expansion  of  the  Old  World 
more  than  the  newly  acquired  freedom  of  thought,  and  we 
must  now  consider  the  influence  of  this  factor. 

Freedom  of  Thought  and  its  Results.  —  In  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth's  father,  Catholics  and  Protestants  alike  had 
been  put  to  death  for  exercising  freedom  of  thought. 
Under  her  immediate  predecessor  on  the  throne  many 
fagot  fires  had  been  lighted  in  England  to  punish  those 
whose  opinions  were  considered  heretical.  In  the  next 
century  the  Puritan  reformers  would  tolerate  only  that 
kind  of  thought  pleasing  to  themselves.  Although  there 
was  some  persecution  of  Catholics  and  Dissenters  in 
Elizabeth's  time,  yet  she  allowed  comparatively  great 
freedom  of  opinion  and  action,  and  English  thought 
reaped  a  wonderful  harvest  during  her  reign. 

The  Puritans  were  even  then  beginning  to  display  their 
narrowness,  but  the  Queen  would  not  permit  them  to  stifle 
thought.  Had  they  been  given  the  power  to  exercise  the 
same  censorship  which  was  allowed  them  in  the  next  cen- 
tury, the  greatest  of  all  dramas  would  have  been  throttled 
in  its  cradle.  During  the  time  of  Puritan  ascendency  in 
the  next  century,  the  theaters  were  torn  down. 

Thought  that  is  not  free  is  like  a  bird  in  a  cage.  There 
may  be  glorious  meadows,  leafy  groves,  and  murmuring 
streams  with  flower-fringed  banks,  but  the  caged  bird  can- 
not gladden  its  eye  with  these,  sing  its  song  in  the  grove, 
or  bathe  in  the  stream.  Once  open  the  door  of  the  cage, 
and  the  world  seems  a  different  one  to  the  bird.  Many 
causes,  among  which  the  Reformation  was  the  chief  one, 
had  conspired  to  open  the  cage,  and  Elizabeth  would  not 
permit  the  door  to  be  closed. 


RISE  OF  THE   MIDDLE   CLASSES  IO/ 

The  Rise  of  the  Middle  Class  and  the  Mingling  of  Differ- 
ent Elements.  —  Improvement  in  seamanship,  in  the  art  of 
building  vessels,  and  in  the  manner  of  life,  which  de- 
manded more  comforts,  caused  a  vast  increase  in  com- 
merce and  trade,  and  this  naturally  led  to  the  rise  of  the 
middle  class.  The  nobility  were  no  longer  the  sole  leaders 
in  England's  rapid  progress.  The  men  chosen  by  Eliza- 
beth to  manage  affairs  of  state  were  not  selected  merely 
on  account  of  their  titles.  Many  of  her  great  ministers 
and  councilors  were  said  to  have  sprung  from  the  earth, 
and  no  reign  could  boast  of  wiser  ones. 

When  any  one  moves  in  an  exclusive  set  or  coterie,  his 
opinions  are  generally  narrow.  Such  a  one  usually  de- 
spises others  because  he  does  not  understand  them. 
Those  who  are  careful  not  to  mingle  with  others  outside 
of  what  is  termed  "  our  set "  are  not  leaders  in  human 
advancement.  Different  elements  of  society  look  at  life 
from  different  points  of  view.  Difference  of  opinion  has 
always  been  a  powerful  spur  to  human  progress.  We 
can  understand  others  only  from  sympathetic  association 
with  them. 

In  speaking  of  the  various  elements  of  Elizabethan  soci- 
ety, an  English  critic  says  :  "  But  these  materials,  and  to 
a  very  large  extent  the  members  of  the  upper  classes 
already  described,  were  intermingled  and  shaken  together 
in  a  manner  quite  unknown  to-day.  At  present,  society 
moves  in  sharply  separated  groups,  while  even  the  indi- 
viduals of  these  groups  keep  very  much  to  themselves. 
The  same  people  meet  each  other  at  the  same  places  and 
times ;  and  they  do  not,  as  a  rule,  meet  other  people  of 
different  classes.  Then,  life  was  led  much  more  in  com- 
mon and  much  more  in  the  open  air." 

When  we  study  Shakespeare,  we  shall  find  that  he  paints 


108  THE  AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 

almost  every  phase  of  human  nature  with  unerring  touch. 
It  is  well  that  he  was  born  in  an  age  when  the  mingling 
of  different  classes  was  common,  so  that  it  was  easier  for 
him  to  become  the  poet  of  all  humanity.  The  audience 
that  stood  in  the  pit  or  sat  in  the  boxes  to  witness  the 
performance  of  his  plays,  comprised  not  only  lords  and 
wealthy  merchants,  but  also  weavers,  sailors,  and  country 
folk. 

The  mingling  of  the  different  classes  took  place  with 
less  friction,  because  of  the  spirit  of  patriotism  in  the  air. 
When  Englishmen,  high  and  low  alike,  aided  in  destroy- 
ing the  Spanish  Armada  and  in  maintaining  England's 
freedom,  all  felt  that  they  had  a  common  share  in  her 
greatness. 

This  mingling  was  further  aided  by  the  attempts  of  the 
Elizabethans  to  try  many  different  pursuits.  Men  thus 
escaped  the  social  restrictions  of  modern  over-specialized 
life. 

The  Many-sidedness  of  Life.  —  The  revival  of  learning 
and  the  opportunity  which  the  sea  constantly  afforded 
for  making  discoveries  and  gaining  wealth,  infused  into 
almost  all  classes  a  desire  for  more  knowledge,  a  long- 
ing to  find  out  those  secrets  which  had  before  been 
hidden. 

We  may  instance  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  to  show  how 
many  sides  to  his  nature  an  Elizabethan  could  develop. 
He  was  a  courtier,  a  warden  of  the  tin  mines,  a  vice- 
admiral,  a  captain  of  the  guard,  a  colonizer,  a  country 
gentleman  managing  a  vast  Irish  estate,  a  pirate,  and  a 
writer.  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  who  died  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
two,  was  an  envoy  to  a  foreign  court,  a  writer  of  romances, 
an  officer  in  the  army,  a  poet,  and  a  courtier.  Even  such 
an  idealist  as  the  poet  Edmund  Spenser  was  an  active 


THE  MANY-SIDEDNESS   OF   LIFE  109 

servant  of  the  crown  in  Irish  affairs.  It  became  an  ambi- 
tion to  have  as  many  different  experiences  as  possible,  to 
search  for  that  variety  which  youth  and  a  youthful  age 
always  crave.  This  characteristic  enabled  the  Eliza- 
bethans to  speak  to  all  mankind  out  of  the  fullness  of  this 
varied  experience,  and  proved  an  important  factor  in  en- 
riching the  literature  of  the  age  with  such  marvelous 
variety. 

The  Fullness  of  Elizabethan  Literature.  —  For  the  first 
time  in  the  world,  nearly  every  type  of  humanity  then  found 
adequate  recognition  and  expression.  That  age  gave 
lasting  utterance  to  almost  every  feeling  which  any  human 
soul  has  ever  known.  Nothing  was  suppressed,  neither 
the  imaginative  longing  of  youth  nor  the  disappointment 
of  old  age.  We  see  the  white  soul  of  a  Cordelia  and  the 
black  one  of  an  lago,  a  man  in  the  grasp  of  ambition,  like 
Macbeth,  and  after  it  has  passed,  like  Lear,  the  imagina- 
tive Hamlet  and  the  dull  gravediggers,  the  servant  and 
the  master,  the  beggar  and  the  prince.  We  see  how  the 
same  man  behaves  on  the  crest  of  Fortune's  wave  and 
when  overwhelmed  by  adverse  storms.  For  the  first  time 
the  shepherd's  crook  was  given  an  equal  rank  beside  the 
scepter. 

No  one  has  ever  complained  because  his  inmost  thoughts 
could  not  find  expression  in  Elizabethan  literature.  When 
we  have  feelings  which  we  regard  as  peculiarly  our  own,  we 
shall  often  be  surprised,  as  we  read  the  literature  of  the 
Elizabethans,  to  find  that  they  have  preceded  us  in  travers- 
ing that  land  of  feeling  which  we  were  on  the  point  of 
claiming  as  the  first  discoverers. 

An  Age  of  Imagination  and  Enthusiasm.  —  The  world 
in  every  direction  seemed  to  offer  untold  possibilities.  A 
nation  which  felt  its  youth  in  every  vein  was  fired  with 


IIO  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

new  hopes,  new  ambitions,  new  ideals.  The  imagination 
is  the  only  power  with  which  we  can  grasp  the  unseen 
and  the  ideal.  There  was  never  a  time  in  the  history  of 
the  world  when  the  imagination  was  more  exercised  and 
stimulated.  It  grew  by  what  it  fed  on  until  it  attained 
first  Spenserian  and  then  Shakespearean  greatness.  The 
stage  on  which  the  Elizabethan  imagination  acted  was 
built  by  the  extension  of  two  worlds,  the  physical  and 
the  mental,  the  land  beyond  the  western  wave  and  the 
empire  of  increasing  knowledge,  which  promised  to  un- 
lock the  secrets  of  wind  and  tide,  of  plant  and  metal,  of 
disease  and  remedy,  of  sun  and  star  and  Milky  Way,  and 
finally,  perhaps,  of  life  and  love,  of  death  and  the  immor- 
tal spirit  world. 

No  literature  demands  sympathetic  interpretation  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  spirit  of  the  age  more  than  the 
Elizabethan.  When  we  read  Marlowe's  Tamburlaine,  we 
may  unsympathetically  declare  it  a  mass  of  exaggeration 
and  bombast.  If  we  can  make  our  own  the  imagination 
and  youthful  feeling  of  that  time,  and  remember  that 
a  world  expanding  in  every  direction  promised  almost 
everything,  we  shall  catch  something  of  young  Marlowe's 
enthusiasm  and  modify  our  former  judgment.  If  we  can- 
not do  this,  there  is  much  of  Elizabethan  literature  that 
we  can  never  read  aright. 

We  shall  come  later  to  an  age  of  cold,  juiceless  reason, 
but  now  the  imagination  sat  on  the  throne  beside  the 
reason.  Imagination  can  tinge  the  leaden  clouds  of  any 
age  with  all  the  colors  of  the  dawn.  Taine  says :  "  I  can 
well  believe  that  things  had  no  more  beauty  then  than 
now ;  but  I  am  sure  that  men  found  them  more  beauti- 
ful." Let  us  remember  that  this  added  beauty  was  due 
to  the  working  of  the  imagination. 


AN  AGE  OF  IMAGINATION  AND  ENTHUSIASM         III 

Even  the  poets  who  rank  low  in  that  age  could  write  :  — 

"To  joy  her  love,  I'll  build  a  kingly  bower, 
Seated  in  hearing  of  a  hundred  streams,"  * 

and  speak  without  effort 

"  Of  moss  that  sleeps  with  sound  the  waters  make." 1 

As  indicative  of  the  intensity  of  youthful  feeling,  an- 
other poet,  meaning  every  syllable  he  uttered,  says :  — 

"I  live  and  love,  what  would  you  more? 
As  never  lover  lived  before."  2 

A  great  Elizabethan,  trying  to  define  beauty,  begins  thus  :  — 

"  If  all  the  pens  that  ever  poets  held 
Had  fed  the  feeling  of  their  masters'  thoughts."  8 

The  faults  of  Elizabethan  literature  sprang  from  this 
very  exuberance  of  imagination  and  youthful  feeling.  In 
connection  with  the  praiseworthy  qualities  of  spontaneity 
and  enthusiasm,  manifested  in  connection  with  a  vivid 
imagination,  we  find  in  much  of  the  literature  exaggera- 
tion, lack  of  pruning,  and  lack  of  artistic  finish.  Even 
Shakespeare  has  some  of  these  faults,  but  in  his  case 
they  are  mostly  concealed  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  genius. 

A  Nest  of  Singing  Birds.—  To  make  a  careful  study  of 
Elizabethan  literature  would  require  more  than  a  life- 
time. We  must  guard  against  thinking  that,  after  we 
have  studied  Shakespeare,  Spenser,  Marlowe,  Ben  Jon- 
son,  and  Bacon,  we  have  finished  the  greater  part  of 
Elizabethan  literature.  It  has  been  aptly  said  that  the 

1  Peek:   David  and  Bethsabe,  I.,  I. 

a  Gascoigne :  A  Strange  Passion  of  a  Lover. 

3  Marlowe:    Tamlurlaine,  V.,  I. 


THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

writers  of  the  age  were  a  nest  of  singing  birds.  Many  of 
them  occasionally  burst  into  songs  of  marvelous  sweetness. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  describe  only  the  greatest 
works.  To  show  that  there  were  other  singers,  we  need 
merely  give  a  few  stray  snatches  of  song  from  some  of 
the  minor  poets. 

"  Love  in  my  bosom,  like  a  bee, 

Doth  suck  his  sweet ; 
Now  with  his  wings  he  plays  with  me, 
Now  with  his  feet." —  LODGE. 

"Weep  not,  my  wanton,  smile  upon  my  knee, 
When  thou  art  old,  there's  grief  enough  for  thee."  —  GREENE. 

"There  is  One 
That  wakes  above,  whose  eye  no  sleep  can  bind." — CHAPMAN. 

"I  shall  have  one  hand  in  heaven 
To  write  my  happiness  in  leaves  of  stars."  —  DEK.KER. 

"For  see!  the  dapple  gray  coursers  of  the  morn 


r  ui  sec:  me  udpjjie  gi<iy  tuuisers  ui  me  mum 
Beat  up  the  light  with  their  bright  silver  hoofs 
And  chase  it  through  the  sky."  —  MARSTON. 

"Not  that  fair  hair  with  which  the  wanton  winds 
Delight  to  play  and  love  to  make  it  curl, 
Wherein  the  nightingales  would  build  their  nests, 
And  make  sweet  bowers  in  every  golden  tress 
To  sing  their  lover  every  night  asleep."  —  PEELE. 

Even  a  nameless  poet  could  say  to  his  dead  children  :  — 

"But  you  are  playing  in  the  angels'  laps 
And  will  not  look  at  me." 

Symonds  truly  says :  "  Shakespeare   stands  alone  and 
has  no  second;  but  without   the  multifarious   excellence 


A  DRAMATIC  AGE  1 13 

of  Jonson,  Webster,  Heywood,  Beaumont,  Fletcher,  Ford, 
Massinger,  and  a  score  whom  it  would  be  tedious  to 
enumerate,  the  student  would  have  to  regard  Shake- 
speare as  an  inexplicable  prodigy,  instead  of  as  the 
central  sun  of  a  luminous  sidereal  system." 

A  Dramatic  Age.  —  As  we  sum  up  the  characteristics 
of  the  Elizabethan  age,  we  can  hardly  fail  to  note  that 
it  was  a  time  of  action  in  every  direction.  The  explora- 
tion of  the  new  physical  world  and  the  unknown  seas 
called  for  action.  To  master  the  new  world  of  knowl- 
edge, which  the  Renaissance  had  disclosed,  demanded 
the  exercise  of  youthful  activities  to  their  full,  if  the 
power  which  such  knowledge  promised  was  to  be  ac- 
quired and  enjoyed  before  the  curtain  of  life  fell.  The 
Reformation  gave  new  activities  to  thought,  which,  leav- 
ing its  cage,  revelled  in  the  new  freedom. 

The  unwonted  activities  of  the  time  of  Elizabeth  de- 
manded a  form  of  literature  that  would  give  them 
adequate  expression.  Only  the  drama  or  the  novel 
could  have  afforded  full  expression  to  that  age  of  action. 
There  were  several  reasons  why  the  novel  was  not 
chosen.  In  the  first  place,  prose,  the  necessary  vehicle 
of  expression  for  the  novel,  had  not  reached  so  high  a 
stage  of  development  as  poetry.  The  most  finished  prose 
could  hardly  have  successfully  competed  with  Elizabethan 
poetry  in  expressing  the  harmonies  and  the  discords  of 
life.  Certain  dramatists  used  prose,  but  Shakespeare's 
genius  taught  him  to  employ  poetry  and  to  resort  to  prose 
only  occasionally  as  an  alloy.  It  is  in  their  poetry  that  we 
behold  the  Elizabethans 

u  Affecting  thoughts  co-equal  with  the  clouds."1 
1  Marlowe :   Tamburlaine,  I.,  2. 


114  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

In  the  second  place,  although  Shakespeare's  time  pro- 
duced some  popular  novels  (see  p.  276),  yet  they  had  not 
reached  the  same  stage  of  development  as  the  drama. 
The  literature  of  both  Greece  and  Rome  furnished 
dramatic  models.  The  English  nation  had  been  under- 
going an  apprenticeship  with  both  Miracle  plays  and 
Moralities  and  had  consequently  become  accustomed  to 
dramatic  expression.  Even  the  highly  developed  nine- 
teenth century  novel  would  not  have  satisfied  the  Eliza- 
bethans. They  would  not  have  enjoyed  the  analytic 
vein  of  Thackeray  and  George  Eliot,  nor  would  they 
have  cared  much  for  either  the  minute  dissection  of 
emotion  or  for  the  analysis  of  motive,  so  common  in 
modern  novels.  In  largeness  of  view,  boldness  of  touch, 
and  hearty  humor,  Scott  is  perhaps  the  only  great 
master  of  English  prose  fiction  who  would  have  appealed 
strongly  to  the  Elizabethans,  but  they  would  have  missed 
in  him  the  height  and  depth  and  breadth,  the  sympathy, 
the  mystery,  and  the  universality,  which  characterize 
Shakespeare's  dramas. 

Thirdly,  although  the  novel  was  in  later  times  a  power- 
ful factor  in  dethroning  the  drama,  even  the  nineteenth 
century  novel  could  not  have  brought  all  life  to  a  focus 
in  so  small  a  compass  as  the  drama.  Unlike  it,  the 
novel  could  not  have  displayed  such 

"Infinite  riches  in  a  little  room."1 

The  Elizabethans  demanded  a  form  of  literature  that 
would  present  to  them  life  in  all  its  variety  and  rapidity 
of  movement.  Only  the  drama  could  satisfy  such  de- 
mands. Even  the  apprentices,  who  could  not  read  a 

1  Marlowe :     The  Jew  of  Malta,  I.,  I. 


FIRST   PART  OF   ELIZABETH'S    REIGN  115 

line  of  the  novels  of  Lodge  or  Greene  or  Nash,  could  for 
a  penny  walk  into  the  pit  of  the  Globe  Theater  and 
see  all  classes  of  humanity,  from  King  Richard  III.  to 
the  gravediggers,  act  the  play  of  life  itself  upon  the 
stage. 

For  these  reasons,  the  responsibility  of  presenting 
Elizabethan  ideals  embodied  in  action  fell  upon  the 
drama.  Accordingly,  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find 
that  all  the  greatest  poets  of  that  master  age,  with  the 
single  exception  of  Spenser,  were  dramatists.  Much  of 
the  literature  of  subsequent  times  is  sicklied  o'er  with 
the  pale  cast  of  thought  without  action,  but  everything 
that  obtained  the  greatest  currency  in  that  age  was 
obliged  to  bear  the  dramatic  stamp.  The  highest  types 
of  imagination  and  thought  have  always  been  embodied 
in  action.  The  literature  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth  fur- 
nishes such  types  in  the  greatest  state  of  perfection  yet 
attained. 

LITERATURE  OF    THE    FIRST    PART  OF    ELIZABETH'S    REIGN 

Productions  of  the  First  Twenty  Years.  —  The  first 
twenty  years  of  the  Elizabethan  age  passed  without  the 
appearance  of  any  literary  work  of  the  highest  rank. 
Writers  were,  however,  trying  a  wide  range  of  subjects. 
Books  were  written  in  prose  on  subjects  as  dissimilar  as 
martyrs  and  education,  history  and  travels.  Greek  and 
Latin  classics  were  translated  into  English  to  serve  as 
stimulating  models. 

Poetic  activity  was  even  more  marked.  Almost  every 
important  event  gave  rise  to  a  ballad.  The  poets  tried 
lyrical  verse  of  well-nigh  endless  variety.  There  ap- 
peared in  1576  a  collection  of  miscellaneous  songs,  known 


u6 


THE   AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 


as  Paradise  of  Dainty  Devices.      This   very  title   shows 
what   the   poets   were   attempting.     They  were   pluming 
their  wings  for   longer  flights  in  every  clime  of   human 
experience.     In  every  direction  the  nation  was  attempting 
and  learning  on  a  larger  scale  than  at  any  preceding  time. 
Only  one  poet  in  the  first  half  of   the  reign,  Thomas 
Sackville  (1536-1608),  towers  sufficiently  high  above  the 
others  to  receive  individual  attention.    He 
helped  to  produce  the  first  Elizabethan 
tragedy  in  blank  verse  (see  p.   142). 
In  1563  he  wrote  the  Induction  and 
Complaint  of  Buckingham,   which 
appeared  in  a  narrative  collection 
of    poetry    by    various    writers, 
under  the  general  title  of  Mirror 
for  Magistrates.     These  poems 
relate  the  haps  and  mishaps  of 
the  illustrious  dead,  and  the  way 
their   spirits    view    this    mortal 
life. 

These  lines  from  the  Induc- 
tion describe  a  part  of  the  journey  to  the  land  of  spirits. 
Sorrow  says :  — 

"I  shall  thee  guide  first  to  the  grisly  lake, 
And  thence  unto  the  blissful  place  of  rest, 
Where  thou  s'halt  see,  and  hear  the  plaint  they  make 
That  whilom  here  bare  swing  among  the  best. 

Thence  come  we  to  the  horrour  and  the  hell, 
The  large  great  kingdoms,  and  the  dreadful  reign 
Of  Pluto  in  his  throne  where  he  did  dwell, 
The  wide  waste  places,  and  the  hugy  plain, 
The  wailings,  shrieks,  and  sundry  sorts  of  pain, 
The  sighs,  the  sobs,  the  deep  and  deadly  groan : 
Earth,  air,  and  all,  resounding  plaint  and  moan." 


THOMAS    SACKVILLE 


SECOND   PART  OF   ELIZABETH'S   REIGN  £17 

These  lines,  notwithstanding  their  lack  of  ornament,  have 
a  directness,  poetic  certainty,  and  firmness  of  grasp 
that  we  miss  in  the  productions  of  the  preceding  hundred 
and  fifty  years. 

LITERATURE  OF  THE   SECOND   PART  OF  ELIZABETH'S   REIGN 

I.    THE  PROSE 

Lyly,  Sidney,  Hooker. — The  year  1579  ushered  in  the 
second  and  more  productive  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 
The  prose  is  far  inferior  to  the  poetry  ;  in  fact,  Bacon's 
is  the  only  Elizabethan  prose  which  is  much  read  to-day. 
The  imaginative  spirit  of  the  age  was  more  favorable  to 
the  production  of  poetry  than  of  prose,  and  the  drama 
afforded  a  poetical  outlet  more  popular  with  all  classes 
than  prose. 

John  Lyly  (i554?-i6o6)  published  in  1579  a  peculiar 
prose  work  entitled,  Euphues,  The  Anatomy  of  Wit,  which 
has  given  a  new  critical  term  to  our  vocabulary.  We  ap- 
ply the  term  "  Euphuism  "  to  any  stilted,  antithetical  style, 
which  pays  more  attention  to  the  manner  of  expressing  a 
thought  than  to  its  worth.  Lyly's  prose  work  shows  an 
excessive  use  of  antithesis,  of  far-fetched  similes,  and 
of  obscure  learning.  This  quotation  is  typical :  — 

"  Achilles  spear  could  as  well  heal  as  hurt,  the  scorpion  though  he 
sting,  yet  he  stints  the  pain,  though  the  herb  Nerius  poison  the  sheep, 
yet  is  a  remedy  to  man  against  poison.  .  .  .  There  is  great  difference 
between  the  standing  puddle  and  the  running  stream,  yet  both  water : 
great  odds  between  the  adamant  and  the  pomice,  yet  both  stones,  a 
great  distinction  to  be  put  between  vitrum  and  the  crystal,  yet  both 
glass :  great  contrariety  between  Lais  and  Lucretia,  yet  both  women.11 

We  may  also  notice  conscious  art  in  this,  a  desire  to 
vary  the  diction  and  to  avoid  the  repetition  of  the  same 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  8 


Il8  THE  AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 

word  for  the  same  idea.  To  find  four  different  terms  for 
the  same  idea:  "difference,"  "odds,"  "distinction,"  and 
"  contrariety,"  involves  considerable  painstaking.  In  the 
course  of  time,  attention,  centered  on  both  the  form  and 
the  thought,  produced  a  good  prose  style.  Lyly  was  one 
of  the  pioneers  on  the  formal  side. 

Sir  Philip  Sidney  (1554-1586)  wrote  a  romance,  entitled 
Arcadia,  for  his  sister,  the  Countess  of  Pembroke.  The 
style  is  poetic  throughout  and  the  characters  in  the 
romance  move  in  a  partial  Utopia,  which  is  called  Ar- 
cadia. Certain  passages  like  the  following,  because  of 
their  exuberant  fancy,  read  as  if  they  had  been  written 
by  a  Celt  (see  p.  38):  — 

"  Her  breath  is  more  sweet  than  a  gentle  southwest  wind,  which 
comes  creeping  over  flowery  fields  and  shadowed  waters  in  the  extreme 
heat  of  summer;  and  yet  is  nothing  compared  to  the  honey-flowing 
speech  that  breath  doth  carry." 

To  Sidney  belongs  the  credit  of  having  written  the  first 
meritorious  essay  on  criticism  in  the  English  language, 
The  Apologie  for  Poetrie.  This  defends  the  poetic  art, 
and  shows  how  necessary  such  exercise  of  the  imagination 
is  to  take  us  away  from  the  cold,  hard  facts  of  life. 

Richard  Hooker  (1554?- 1600),  an  Episcopal  clergyman, 
wrote  a  theological  work,  The  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity. 
This  is  a  defense  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  the  theologians  of  that  Church  yet  refer  to  him  as 
one  of  their  authorities.  Hooker's  is  one  of  the  greatest 
English  prose  works  written  before  1600.  Its  chief  excel- 
lences are  (i)  positive  dignity  of  style,  (2)  freedom  from 
the  excessive  antithesis  and  conceits  of  Lyly,  and  (3) 
from  the  over-profuse  poetic  ornamentation  of  much  of 
Sidney's  work.  (4)  It  often  expresses  profound  thought 


SECOND    PART   OF   ELIZABETH'S   REIGN  119 


in  a  richly  musical  succession  of  syllables.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  work  has  striking  faults.  The  sentences  are 
often  formed  after  a  Latin  model.  They  are  long  and 
involved,  and  the  verb  is  frequently  placed  last.  For 
these  reasons,  one  soon  wearies  if  he  reads  consecutively 
much  of  Hooker. 


120 


THE   AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 


FRANCIS   BACON,   1561-1626 

Life.  —  A  study  of  Bacon  takes  us  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  but  not  beyond  the  continued 
influences  of  that  reign.  Francis  Bacon,  the  son  of  Sir 
Nicholas  Bacon,  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  under 
Elizabeth,  was  born  in  London  and  grew  up  under  the 
influences  of  the  court.  We  must  remember  the  influences 
which  helped  to  fashion  him  in  his  boyhood  days,  in  order 
to  understand  some  of  his  actions  in  later  life.  He  early 
acquired  a  taste  for  many  luxuries,  and  these  necessitated 


FRANCIS  BACON  121 

his  getting  much  money.  Those  with  whom  he  early  as- 
sociated and  who  unconsciously  molded  him  were  not  very 
scrupulous  about  the  way  in  which  they  secured  the  favor 
of  the  court  or  the  means  which  they  took  to  outstrip  an 
adversary.  These  unfortunate  influences  were  intensified 
when,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  was  sent  with  the  English 
ambassador  to  Paris,  where  the  youth  remained  for  two 
and  a  half  years,  studying  statecraft  and  diplomacy. 

When  Bacon  was  nineteen,  his  father  died.  The  son, 
being  without  money,  returned  from  Paris  and  became  a 
lawyer.  His  uncle,  Lord  Burleigh,  was  one  of  Elizabeth's 
ministers.  To  him  Bacon  appealed  for  some  lucrative 
position  at  the  court.  In  a  letter  to  his  uncle,  Bacon 
says :  "  I  confess  I  have  as  vast  contemplative  ends  as  I 
have  moderate  civil  ends ;  for  I  have  taken  all  knowledge 
to  be  my  province."  This  shows  that  he  wished  leisure 
for  study  and  writing.  Such  an  intention  should  be  es- 
pecially noted  because  it  manifests  the  Elizabethan  desire 
to  master  the  entire  world  of  the  New  Learning.  Instead 
of  helping  his  nephew,  Lord  Burleigh  seems  to  have  done 
all  in  his  power  to  thwart  him. 

Bacon  entered  Parliament  in  1584  and  distinguished 
himself  as  a  speaker.  Ben  Jonson,  the  dramatist,  says 
of  him  :  "  There  happened  in  my  time,  one  noble  speaker 
who  was  full  of  gravity  in  his  speaking.  No  man  ever 
spoke  more  neatly,  more  presly,  more  weightily,  or 
suffered  less  emptiness,  less  idleness,  in  what  he  uttered. 
His  hearers  could  not  cough  or  look  aside  from  him 
without  loss.  The  fear  of  every  man  that  heard  him 
was  lest  he  should  make  an  end."  This  speaking  was 
valuable  training  for  Bacon  in  writing  the  pithy  sentences 
of  his  Essays.  A  man  who  uses  the  long,  involved  sen- 
tences of  Hooker  can  never  become  a  speaker  to  whom 


122  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

people  will  listen.  The  habit  of  directness  and  simplicity, 
which  Bacon  formed  in  his  speaking,  remained  with  him 
through  life. 

After  James  I.  came  to  the  throne  in  1603,  Bacon's  rise 
was  rapid.  He  ascended  step  by  step,  until  he  became 
Lord  High  Chancellor  of  England.  He  was  accused  in 
1621  of  having  received  bribes  as  a  judge.  This  was  no 
new  thing  in  English  jurisprudence.  It  had  long  been 
customary  for  judges  to  accept  presents.  Bacon's  love 
for  luxuries  was  so  great  that  he  had  probably  received,  or 
allowed  his  subordinates  to  receive,  presents  from  rival 
contestants.  Some  complained  when  the  decision  went 
against  them,  but  there  is  no  complaint  on  record  that  his 
decisions  were  unjust.  Bacon  himself  said  that  he  was 
pleased  to  receive  presents,  but  that  they  made  no  differ- 
ence with  his  decisions.  He  was  tried,  found  guilty,  fined 
.£40,000,  and  sentenced  to  be  imprisoned  in  the  Tower 
during  the  King's  pleasure.  After  a  few  days  the  King 
released  him,  remitted  the  fine,  and  gave  him  an  annual 
pension  of  £1200. 

Bacon  passed  the  remaining  five  years  of  his  life  in  re- 
tirement, studying  and  writing.  His  interest  in  observing 
natural  objects  and  experimenting  with  them  was  the 
cause  of  his  death.  He  was  riding  in  a  snowstorm  when 
it  occurred  to  him  to  experiment  with  snow  as  a  preserva- 
tive agent.  He  stopped  at  a  house,  procured  a  fowl,  and 
stuffed  it  with  snow.  He  caught  cold  while  doing  this, 
was  improperly  cared  for,  and  soon  died. 

The  Essays.  —  The  first  ten  of  his  Essays,  his  most 
popular  work,  appeared  in  the  year  1597.  At  the  time 
of  his  death,  he  had  increased  them  to  fifty-eight.  They 
deal  with  a  wide  range  of  subjects,  from  Studies  and  No- 
bility',  on  the  one  hand,  to  Marriage  and  Single  Life  and 


FRANCIS   BACON  123 

Gardens,  on  the  other.  The  great  critic  Hallam  says  :  "  It 
would  be  somewhat  derogatory  to  a  man  of  the  slightest 
claim  to  polite  letters,  were  he  unacquainted  with  the  Es- 
says of  Bacon.  It  is,  indeed,  little  worth  while  to  read 
this  or  any  other  book  for  reputation's  sake ;  but  very  few 
in  our  language  so  well  repay  the  pains,  or  afford  more 
nourishment  to  the  thoughts." 

The  following  sentence  from  the  essay  Of  Studies  will 
show  some  of  the  characteristics  of  his  way  of  presenting 
thought :  — 

"  Reading  maketh  a  full  man,  conference  a  ready  man,  and  writing 
an  exact  man ;  and,  therefore,  if  a  man  write  little,  he  had  need  have  a 
great  memory  ;  if  he  confer  little,  he  had  need  have  a  present  wit ;  and 
if  he  read  little,  he  had  need  have  much  cunning  to  seem  to  know  that 
he  doth  not." 

We  may  notice  here  (i)  clearness,  (2)  conciseness,  (3) 
breadth  of  thought  and  observation. 

A  shrewd  Scotchman  says  :  "  It  may  be  said  that  to 
men  wishing  to  rise  in  the  world  by  politic  management  of 
their  fellow-men,  Bacon's  Essays  are  the  best  handbook 
hitherto  published."  In  justification  of  this  criticism,  we 
need  only  quote  from  the  essay  Of  Negotiations :  — 

"  It  is  generally  better  to  deal  by  speech  than  by  letter.  Letters  are 
good,  when  a  man  would  draw  an  answer  by  letter  back  again,  or  when 
it  may  serve  for  a  man's  justification  afterwards  to  produce  his  own 
letter,  or  where  it  may  be  danger  to  be  interrupted  or  heard  by  pieces. 
To  deal  in  person  is  good,  when  a  man's  face  breedeth  regard,  as  com- 
monly with  inferiors,  or  in  tender  cases,  where  a  man's  eye  upon  the 
countenance  of  him  with  whom  he  speaketh  may  give  him  a  direction 
how  far  to  go,  and  generally,  when  a  man  will  reserve  to  himself  liberty 
either  to  disavow  or  to  expound." 

Scientific  and  Miscellaneous  Works.  —  The  Advancement 
of  Learning  is  another  of  Bacon's  great  works.  The  title 


124  THE  AGE   OF  ELIZABETH 

aptly  expresses  the  purpose  of  the  book.  He  insists  on 
the  necessity  of  close  observation  of  nature  and  of  making 
experiments  with  various  forms  of  matter.  He  decries 
the  habit  of  spinning  things  out  of  -one's  inner  conscious- 
ness, without  patiently  studying  the  outside  world  to  see 
whether  the  facts  justify  the  conclusions.  In  other  words, 
he  insists  on  induction.  Bacon  was  not  the  father  of  the 
inductive  principle,  as  is  sometimes  wrongly  stated,  for 
prehistoric  man  was  compelled  to  make  inductions  before 
he  could  advance  one  step  from  barbarism. 

Bacon  had  so  little  faith  in  the  enduring  qualities  of  the 
English  language,  that  he  wrote  the  most  of  his  philo- 
sophical works  in  Latin.  He  planned  a  Latin  work  in 
six  parts,  to  cover  the  whole  field  of  the  philosophy 
of  natural  science.  The  most  famous  of  the  parts  com- 
pleted is  the  Novum  Organum,  which  deals  with  certain 
methods  for  searching  after  definite  truth,  and  shows  how 
to  avoid  some  ever-present  tendencies  toward  error. 

Bacon  wrote  an  excellent  History  of  the  Reign  of  Henry 
VII. ,  which  is  standard  to  this  day.  He  also  wrote  The 
New  Atlantis,  which  may  be  termed  a  Baconian  Utopia, 
or  study  of  an  ideal  commonwealth. 

General  Characteristics.  —  In  Bacon's  sentences  we  may 
often  find  remarkable  condensation  of  thought  in  few 
words.  One  does  not  have  to  search  for  two  grains  of 
wheat  hid  in  two  bushels  of  chaff.  A  modern  essayist 
has  taken  seven  pages  to  express,  or  rather  to  obscure, 
the  ideas  in  these  three  lines  from  Bacon :  — 

"  Men  of  age  object  too  much,  consult  too  long,  adventure  too  little, 
repent  too  soon,  and  seldom  drive  business  home  to  the  full  period,  but 
content  themselves  with  a  mediocrity  of  success." 1 

1  Of  Youth  and  Age. 


EDMUND   SPENSER  12$ 

His  work  abounds  in  illustrations,  analogies,  and  strik- 
ing imagery  ;  but,  unlike  the  great  Elizabethan  poets,  he 
appeals  more  to  cold  intellect  than  to  the  feelings.  We  are 
pleased  with  his  intellectual  ingenuity  in  comparing  a  man 
who  is  courteous  to  foreigners,  not  to  an  island  cut  off 
from  other  lands,  but  to  a  continent  joined  to  them  ;  or  in. 
likening  the  Schoolmen  to  spiders,  spinning  such  stuff  as 
webs  are  made  of  "  out  of  no  great  quantity  of  matter." 

He  resembles  the  Elizabethans  in  preferring  magnificent 
to  commonplace  images.  It  has  been  often  noticed  that  if 
he  essays  to  write  of  buildings  in  general,  he  prefers  to 
describe  palaces.  His  knowledge  of  the  intellectual  side 
of  human  nature  is  specially  remarkable,  but,  unlike 
Shakespeare,  Bacon  never  drops  his  plummet  into  the 
emotional  depths  of  the  soul. 


II.   THE  POETRY 

EDMUND  SPENSER,   1552-1599 

Life  and  Minor  Poems.  —  Since  Chaucer's  day  there  had 
been  no  poet  of  the  first  rank  in  England.  In  the  last 
year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  was  born  Edmund  Spen- 
ser, who  takes  rank  only  slightly  below  Chaucer  in  the 
list  of  English  poets.  Spenser  was  six  years  old  when 
Elizabeth  became  queen. 

His  parents  were  poor,  but  fortunately  there  were  gener- 
ous men  in  Elizabethan  times  as  now,  men  who  found 
their  chief  pleasure,  not  in  their  own  selfish  gratification, 
but  in  making  others  happy.  Such  a  man  assisted  Spen- 
ser in  going  to  Cambridge.  His  benefactor  was  wise 
enough  not  to  make  this  assistance  sufficient  to  support 
Spenser  without  additional  effort.  His  patron  realized 


126 


THE  AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 


that  the  student's  will  and  capacity  for  depending  on  him- 
self would  have  been  weakened  thereby.  We  know  that 
Spenser  was  a  sizar  at  Cambridge ;  that  is,  one  of  those 
students  who,  to  quote  Macaulay,  "  had  to  perform  some 
menial  services.  They  swept  the  court;  they  carried  up 
the  dinner  to  the  fellows'  table,  and  changed  the  plate  and 
poured  out  the  ale  of  the  rulers  of  society."  We  further 
know  that  Spenser  was  handicapped  by  ill  health  during  a 


EDMUND  SPENSER  1 2  7 

part  of  his  course,  for  we  find  entrances  of  allowances  paid 
"Spenser  <zgrotanti" 

After  leaving  Cambridge  he  went  to  the  north  of  Eng- 
land, probably  in  the  capacity  of  tutor.  While  there,  he 
fell  in  love  with  a  young  woman  whom  he  calls  Rosalind. 
This  event  colored  his  after  life.  Although  she  refused 
him,  she  had  penetration  enough  to  see  in  what  his  great- 
ness consisted,  and  her  opinion  spurred  him  to  develop 
his  abilities  as  a  poet.  He  was  in  his  twenties  when  he  fell 
in  love  with  Rosalind,  and  he  remained  single  until  he  was 
forty-two,  when  he  married  an  Irish  maiden  named  Eliza- 
beth. In  honor  of  that  event,  he  composed  the  EpitJiala- 
mion,  the  noblest  marriage  song  in  any  literature.  So  strong 
are  early  impressions  that  even  in  its  lines  he  seems  to  be 
thinking  of  Rosalind  and  fancying  that  she  is  his  bride. 

After  returning  from  the  north,  he  spent  some  time  with 
Sir  Philip  Sidney,  who  helped  fashion  Spenser's  ideals  of 
a  chivalrous  gentleman.  Sidney's  influence  is  seen  in 
Spenser's  greatest  work,  the  Faerie  Queene.  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  was  another  friend  who  left  his  imprint  on 
Spenser. 

In  1579  Spenser  published  the  Shepherd's  Calendar. 
This  is  a  pastoral  poem,  consisting  of  twelve  different 
parts,  one  part  being  assigned  to  each  of  the  twelve 
months.  This  poem  occupies  an  inferior  position  beside 
his  greatest  work ;  but,  considering  the  time,  the  Shep- 
herd's Calendar  is  a  remarkable  production,  and  it  shows 
that  its  author  had  genius. 

In  1580  he  was  appointed  secretary  to  Lord  Gray,  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  In  one  capacity  or  another,  in  the 
service  of  the  crown,  Spenser  passed  in  Ireland  almost  the 
entire  remaining  eighteen  years  of  his  life.  In  1591  he 
received  in  the  south  of  Ireland  a  grant  of  three  thousand 


128 


THE  AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 


acres,  a  part  of  the  estate  of  a  rebellious  Irish  earl.  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  was  also  given  forty-two  thousand  acres 
near  Spenser.  Ireland  was  then  in  a  state  of  continuous 
turmoil.  In  such  a  country  Spenser  lived  and  wrote  his 
Faerie  Queene.  Of  course,  this  environment  powerfully 
affected  the  character  of  that  poem.  It  has  been  said 
that  to  read  a  contemporary's  account  of  "  Raleigh's  ad- 
ventures with  the  Irish  chieftains,  his  challenges  and 
single  combats,  his  escapes  at  fords  and  woods,  is  like 
reading  bits  of  the  Faerie  Queene  in  prose." 


From  an  old  print. 

RUINS    OF    KILCOLMAN    CASTLE    (SPENSER'S    HOME    IN    IRELAND) 

In  1598  Spenser's  castle  was  set  on  fire  by  the  Irish. 
He  and  his  family  barely  escaped  with  their  lives.  He 
crossed  to  England,  and  died  the  next  year,  according  to 
some  accounts,  in  want.  He  was  buried,  at  the  expense  of 
Lord  Essex,  in  Westminster  Abbey,  near  Chaucer. 


EDMUND   SPENSER  1 29 

The  Faerie  Queene.  —  In  1590  Spenser  published  the 
first  three  books  of  the  Faerie  Queene.  The  original  plan 
was  to  have  the  poem  contain  twelve  books,  like  Virgil's 
ALneid,  but  only  six  were  published.  If  more  were 
written,  they  have  been  lost. 

The  poem  is  an  allegory  with  the  avowed  moral  purpose 
of  fashioning  "  a  gentleman  or  noble  person  in  vertuous 
and  gentle  discipline."  Spenser  says:  "  I  labour  to  pour- 
traict  in  Arthure,  before  he  was  King,  the  image  of  a  brave 
knight,  perfected  in  the  twelve  private  morall  vertues,  as 
Aristotle  hath  devised."  Twelve  Knights  personifying 
twelve  Virtues  were  to  fight  with  their  opposing  Vices,  and 
the  twelve  books  were  to  tell  the  story  of  the  conflict.  The 
Knights  set  out  from  the  court  of  Gloriana,  the  Faerie 
Queene,  in  search  of  their  enemies,  and  meet  with  divers 
adventures  and  enchantments. 

The  hero  of  the  tale  is  Arthur,  who  has  figured  so  much 
in  English  song  and  legend.  Spenser  makes  him  typical 
of  all  the  Virtues  taken  together.  The  first  book,  which 
is  really  a  complete  'poem  by  itself,  and  which  is  generally 
admitted  to  be  the  finest,  contains  an  account  of  the  ad- 
ventures of  the  Red  Cross  Knight,  who  represents  Holi- 
ness. Other  books  tell  of  the  warfare  of  the  Knights 
who  typify  Temperance,  Chastity,  Friendship,  Justice, 
and  Courtesy. 

The  poem  begins  thus  :  — 

"  A  gentle  Knight  was  pricking  l  on  the  plaine, 
Ycladd  in  mightie  armes  and  silver  shielde, 
Wherein  old  dints  of  deepe  \\oundes  did  remaine, 
The  cruell  markes  of  many1  a  bloody  fielde ; 
Yet  armes  till  that  time  did  he  never  wield. 

1  riding. 


I3O  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

"  And  on  his  brest  a  bloodie  Crosse  he  bore, 
The  deare  remembrance  of  his  dying  Lord, 
For  whose  sweete  sake  that  glorious  badge  he  wore. 

"  Upon  a  great  adventure  he  was  bond, 
That  greatest  Gloriana  to  him  gave, 
That  greatest  glorious  Queene  of  Faerie  lond." 

The  entire  poem  really  typifies  the  aspirations  of  the  hu- 
man soul  for  something  nobler  and  better  than  can  be  gained 
without  effort.  In  Spenser's  imaginative  mind,  these 
aspirations  became  real  persons  who  set  out  to  win 
laurels  in  a  fairyland,  lighted  with  the  soft  light  of  the 
moon,  and  presided  over  by  the  good  genius  that  loves  to 
uplift  struggling  and  weary  souls. 

The  allegory  certainly  becomes  confused.  A  critic  well 
says :  "  We  can  hardly  lose  our  way  in  it,  for  there  is  no 
way  to  lose."  We  are  not  called  on  to  understand  the 
intricacies  of  the  allegory,  but  to  read  between  the  lines, 
catch  the  noble  moral  lesson,  and  drink  to  our  fill  at  the 
fountain  of  beauty  and  melody. 

Spenser  a  Subjective  Poet.  —  The  subjective  cast  of 
Spenser's  mind  next  demands  attention.  We  feel  that 
his  is  an  ideal  world,  one  that  does  not  exist  outside  of 
the  imagination.  In  order  to  understand  the  difference 
between  subjective  and  objective,  let  us  compare  Chaucer 
with  Spenser.  No  one  can  really  be  said  to  study  litera- 
ture without  constantly  bringing  in  the  principle  of  com- 
parison. We  must  notice  the  likeness  and  the  difference 
between  literary  productions,  or  the  faint  impression  which 
they  make  upon  our  minds  will  soon  pass  away. 

Chaucer  is  objective ;  that  is,  he  identifies  himself  with 
things  that  have  a  real  existence  in  the  outside  world.  For 
instance,  when  he  says :  — 


EDMUND   SPENSER  131 

"  The  bisy  larke,  messager  of  daye, 
Saluteth  in  hir  song  the  morwe  graye, 
And  fyry  Phebus  ryseth  up  so  brighte 
That  al  the  orient  laugheth  of  the  lighte, 
And  with  hise  stremes  dryeth  in  the  greves 
The  silver  dropes,  hangynge  on  the  leves,"1 

our  attention  is  here  drawn  to  the  song  of  an  actual  lark, 
to  the  beauty  of  the  morning  light,  to  the  sunbeams  dan- 
cing on  the  dewdrops,  which  sparkle  on  the  green  leaves. 
There  is  nothing  here  which  a  sympathetic  observer  of 
nature  might  not  notice  and  regard  without  a  thought  of 
self.  In  like  manner  we  find  ourselves  looking  at  the 
shiny  bald  head  of  Chaucer's  Monk,  at  the  lean  horse 
and  threadbare  clothes  of  the  Student  of  Oxford,  at  the 
brown  complexion  of  the  Shipman,  at  the  enormous  hat 
and  large  figure  of  the  Wife  of  Bath,  at  the  red  face  of 
the  Summoner,  at  the  hair  of  the  Pardoner  "yelow  as 
wex."  These  are  not  mere  figments  of  the  imagination. 
We  feel  that  they  are  either  realities  or  that  they  could 
have  existed. 

While  the  adventures  in  the  Irish  wars  undoubtedly 
gave  the  original  suggestions  for  many  of  the  contests 
between  good  and  evil  in  the  Faerie  Qtieene,  Spenser  inten- 
tionally idealized  these  knightly  struggles  to  uphold  the 
right  and  placed  them  in  fairyland.  This  great  poem  is 
the  work  of  a  mind  that  loved  to  elaborate  purely  subjec- 
tive images.  The  pictures  were  not  painted  from  gazing  at 
the  outside  world.  We  feel  that  they  are  mostly  creations 
of  the  imagination,  and  that  few  of  them  could  exist  in  a 
real  world.  The  passages  in  the  next  section  show  this. 
There  is  no  bower  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  "  built  of  hollow 
billowes  heaped  hye,"  and  no  lion  ever  follows  a  lost  maiden 

1  Knightes  Tale. 


132  THE   AGE  OF    ELIZABETH 

to  protect  her.  We  feel  that  the  principal  part  of  Shake- 
speare's world  could  have  existed  in  reality  as  well  as  in 
imagination.  Spenser  was  never  able  to  reach  this  high- 
est type  of  art. 

The  world,  however,  needs  poets  to  create  images  of  a 
higher  type  of  beauty  than  this  life  can  offer.  These 
images  react  on  our  material  lives  and  cast  them  in  a 
nobler  mold.  Spenser's  belief  that  the  subjective  has 
power  to  fashion  the  objective  is  expressed  in  two  of  the 
finest  lines  that  he  ever  wrote  :  - 

"  For  of  the  soule  the  bodie  forme  doth  take  ; 
For  soule  is  forme,  and  doth  the  bodie  make.1' 1 

Chief  Characteristics  of  Spenser's  Poetry.  —  We  can  say 
of  Spenser's  verse  that  it  stands  in  the  front  rank  for 
(i)  melody,  (2)  love  of  the  beautiful,  and  (3)  nobility  of  the 
ideals  presented.  His  poetry  also  (4)  shows  a  preference 
for  the  subjective  world,  (5)  exerts  a  remarkable  influence 
over  other  poets,  and  (6)  displays  a  peculiar  liking  for 
obsolete  forms  of  expression. 

Spenser's  melody  is  noteworthy.  If  we  read  aloud  cor- 
rectly such  lines  as  these,  we  can  scarcely  fail  to  be  im- 
pressed with  their  harmonious  flow  :  - 

"  A  teme  of  Dolphins  raunged  in  aray 
Drew  the  smooth  charett  of  sad  Cymoent : 
They  were  all  taught  by  Triton  to  obay 
To  the  long  raynes  at  her  commaundement : 
As  swifte  as  swallowes  on  the  waves  they  went. 

"  Upon  great  Neptune's  neck  they  softly  swim, 
And  to  her  watry  chamber  swiftly  carry  him. 
Deepe  in  the  bottome  of  the  sea  her  bowre 
Is  built'of  hollow  billowes  heaped  hye."'2 

lAn  Hymne  in  Honour  of  Beautie.      2  Faerie  Queene,  Book  III.,  Canto  4. 


EDMUND   SPENSER  133 

The  following  lines  will  show  Spenser's  love  for  beauty, 
and  at  the  same  time  indicate  the  nobility  of  some  of  his 
ideal  characters.  He  is  describing  Lady  Una,  the  fair 
representative  of  true  religion,  who  has  lost  through  en- 
chantment her  Guardian  Knight,  and  who  is  wandering 
disconsolate  in  the  forest :  — 

"...  Her  angel's  face, 
As  the  great  eye  of  heaven,  shyned  bright. 
And  made  a  sunshine  in  the  shady  place  ; 
Did  never  mortall  eye  behold  such  heavenly  grace. 

"It  fortuned  out  of  the  thickest  wood 
A  ramping  Lyon  rushed  suddeinly, 
Hunting  full  greedy  after  salvage  blood. 
Soone  as  the  royall  virgin  he  did  spy, 
With  gaping  mouth  at  her  ran  greedily, 
To  have  att  once  devoured  her  tender  corse ; 
But  to  the  pray  when  as  he  drew  more  ny, 
His  bloody  rage  aswaged  with  remorse, 
And  with  the  sight  amazd,  forgat  his  furious  forse. 

"  In  stead  thereof  he  kist  her  wearie  feet, 
And  lickt  her  lilly  hands  with  fawning  tong, 
As  he  her  wronged  innocence  did  weet. 
O,  how  can  beautie  maister  the  most  strong, 
And  simple  truth  subdue  avenging  wrong  !  " 1 

The  power  of  beauty  has  seldom  been  more  vividly 
described.  As  we  read  the  succeeding  stanzas  and  see  the 
lion  following  her,  like  a  faithful  dog,  to  shield  her  from 
harm,  we  feel  the  power  of  both  beauty  and  goodness  and 
realize  that  with  Spenser  these  terms  are  interchangeable. 
Each  one  of  the  preceding  selections  shows  his  preference 
for  the  subjective  and  the  ideal  to  the  actual. 

A  critic  rightly  says  that  Spenser  repels  none  but  the 
anti-poetical.  His  influence  upon  other  poets  has  been 

1  Faerie  Queene,  Book  I.,  Canto  3. 
HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  9 


134  THE   ENGLISH    DRAMA 

far-reaching.  Milton,  Dryden,  Byron,  Wordsworth,  Keats, 
and  Shelley  show  traces  of  his  influence.  Spenser  has 
been  called  the  poet's  poet,  because  the  more  poetical  one 
is,  the  more  one  will  enjoy  him. 

Spenser  searched  for  old  and  obsolete  words.  He  used 
"eyne"  for  "eyes,"  "  fone "  for  "foes,"  "  shend "  for 
"shame."  He  did  not  hesitate  to  coin  words  when  he 
needed  them,  like  "mercify"  and  "  fortunize."  He  even 
wrote  "wawes"  in  place  of  "waves"  because  he  wished 
it  to  rhyme  with  "jaws."  In  spite  of  these  peculiarities, 
Spenser  is  not  hard  reading  after  the  first  appearance  of 
strangeness  has  worn  away. 

III.   THE  ENGLISH  DRAMA 

The  Rise  of  the  Drama  in  England.  —  Like  so  many 
things  of  great  moment,  our  drama  took  its  rise  in  religion. 
The  rites  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  have  always  been 
marked  with  much  dramatic  splendor.  Any  one  may  to- 
day form  some  idea  of  the  rise  of  our  drama  by  attending 
the  service  of  that  church  on  Christmas  or  Easter  Sunday. 
In  many  Catholic  churches  there  may  still  be  seen  at 
Christmas  time  a  representation  of  the  manger  at  Beth- 
lehem. Sometimes  the  figures  of  the  infant.  Savior,  of 
Joseph  and  Mary,  of  the  wise  men,  of  the  sheep  and 
cattle,  are  very  lifelike. 

The  events  clustering  about  the  Crucifixion  and  the 
Resurrection  furnished  the  most  striking  material  for  the 
early  religious  drama.  Our  earliest  dramatic  writers  drew 
their  inspiration  from  the  New  Testament. 

Miracle  and  Mystery  Plays.  —  A  Miracle  play  is  the 
dramatic  representation  of  the  life  of  a  saint  and  of  the 
miracles  connected  with  him.  A  Mystery  play  deals  with . 


THE   MIRACLE   PLAYS  135 

gospel  events  which  are  concerned  with  any  phase  of  the 
life  of  Christ,  or  with  any  biblical  event  that  remotely 
foreshadows  Christ  or  indicates  the  necessity  of  a  Re- 
deemer. In  England  there  were  few,  if  any,  pure  Miracle 
plays,  but  the  term  "Miracle"  is  applied  indiscriminately 
to  both  Miracles  and  Mysteries. 

The  first  Miracle  play  in  England  was  acted  probably 
not  far  from  noo.  In  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and 
sixteenth  centuries  these  plays  had  become  so  popular 
that  they  were  produced  in  nearly  every  part  of  England. 
Shakespeare  felt  their  influence.  He  must  have  had  fre- 
quent opportunities  in  his  boyhood  to  witness  their  pro- 
duction. They  were  seldom  performed  in  England  after 
1600,  although  visitors  to  Germany  have  every  ten  years 
the  opportunity  of  seeing  a  modern  production  of  a 
Mystery  in  the  Passion  Play  at  Oberammergau. 

The  Subjects.  —  Four  great  cycles  of  Miracle  plays  have 
been  preserved  :  the  York,  Chester,  and  Coventry  plays, 
so  called  because  they  were  performed  in  those  places, 
and  the  Towneley  plays.  These  last  take  their  name 
from  Towneley  Hall  in  Lancashire,  where  the  manuscript 
was  kept  for  some  time.  It  is  probable  that  almost  every 
town  of  importance  had  its  own  collection  of  plays. 

The  York  cycle  contains  forty-eight  plays.  A  cycle  or 
circle  of  plays  means  a  list  forming  a  complete  circle  from 
Creation  until  Doomsday.  The  York  collection  begins  with 
Creation  and  the  fall  of  Lucifer  and  the  bad  angels  from 
Heaven,  —  a  theme  which  was  later  to  inspire  the  pen 
of  one  of  England's  greatest  poets.  The  tragedies  of 
Eden  and  the  Flood,  scenes  from  the  lives  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Moses,  the  manger  at  Bethlehem,  the  slaughter 
of  the  Innocents,  the  Temptation,  the  resurrection  of 
Lazarus,  the  Last  Supper,  the  Trial,  the  Crucifixion,  and 


136 


THE  ENGLISH   DRAMA 


the  Easter  triumph,  are  a  few  of  the  Miracle  plays  that 
were  acted  in  the  city  of  York. 

The  Actors  and  Manner  of  Presentation. — At  first  the 
actors  were  priests  who  presented  the  plays  either  in  the 
church  or  in  its  immediate  vicinity  on  sacred  ground. 


From  an  old  print. 


MIRACLE    PLAY    AT    COVENTRY 


After  a  while  the  plays  became  so  popular  that  the  laity 
presented  them.  When  they  were  at  the  height  of  their 
popularity,  that  is,  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  the  actors  were  selected  with  great  care  from 
the  members  of  the  various  trades  guilds,  and  each  guild 
undertook  the  entire  responsibility  for  the  presentation  of 
some  one  play,  and  endeavored  to  surpass,  all  the  other 
guilds. 


THE  MIRACLE  PLAYS  137 

Considerable  humor  was  displayed  in  the  allotment  of 
various  plays.  The  tanners  presented  the  fall  of  Lucifer 
and  the  bad  angels  into  the  infernal  regions;  the  ship 
carpenters,  the  play  of  Noah  and  the  building  of  the  ark ; 
the  bakers,  the  Last  Supper ;  the  butchers,  the  Crucifixion. 

In  their  prime,  the  Miracle  plays  were  acted  on  wooden 
platforms  mounted  on  wheels.  There  were  two  distinct 
stories  in  these  movable  stages,  a  lower  one  in  which  the 
actors  dressed,  and  an  upper  one  in  which  they  played. 
The  entrance  to  the  lower  story  was  a  terrible  pair  of 
dragonlike  jaws,  painted  red.  From  these  issued  smoke, 
flame,  and  horrible  outcries.  This  entrance  was  known 
as  Hell  Mouth.  From  it  leaped  red-coated  devils  to 
tempt  the  Savior,  the  saints,  and  men.  Into  it  the  devils 
would  disappear  with  some  wicked  soul.  They  would 
torture  it  and  make  it  roar  with  pain,  as  the  smoke  poured 
faster  from  the  red  jaws. 

In  York  on  Corpus  Christi  Day,  which  usually  fell  in 
the  first  week  in  June,  the  actors  were  ordered  to  be 
in  their  places  on  these  movable  theaters  at  half  past 
three  in  the  morning.  Certain  stations  had  been  selected 
throughout  the  city,  where  each  pageant  should  stop  and, 
in  the  proper  order,  present  its  own  play.  In  this  way  the 
enormous  crowds  that  visited  York  to  see  these  perform- 
ances were  more  evenly  scattered  throughout  the  city. 

The  actors  did  not  always  remain  on  the  stage.  Herod 
in  his  magnificent  robes  used  to  ride  on  horseback  among 
the  people,  boast  of  his  prowess,  and  overdo  everything, 
so  that  Shakespeare,  who  was  evidently  familiar  with  the 
character,  speaks  of  out-Heroding  Herod.  The  Devil 
also  frequently  jumped  from  the  stage  and  availed  him- 
self of  his  license  to  play  pranks  among  the  audience. 

Much  of  the  acting  was  undoubtedly  excellent.     In  1476 


138  THE   ENGLISH    DRAMA 

the  council  at  York  ordained  that  four  of  the  best  players 
in  the  city  should  examine  with  regard  to  fitness  all  who 
wished  to  take  part  in  the  plays.  So  many  were  desirous 
of  acting,  that  it  was  much  trouble  to  get  rid  of  incom- 
petents. The  ordinance  ran :  "  All  such  as  they  shall 
find  sufficient  in  person  and  cunning,  to  the  honor  of  the 
City  and  worship  of  the  said  Crafts,  for  to  admit  and 
able ;  and  all  other  insufficient  persons,  either  in  cunning, 
voice,  or  person,  to  discharge,  ammove  and  avoid."  A 
critic  says  that  this  ordinance  is  "one  of  the  steps  on 
which  the  greatness  of  the  Elizabethan  stage  was  built, 
and  through  which  its  actors  grew  up."  * 

Introduction  of  the  Comic  Element  in  the  Miracle  Plays.  - 
While  the  old  drama  generally  confined  itself  to  religious 
subjects,  the  comic  element  occasionally  crept  in,  made  its 
power  felt,  and  disclosed  a  new  path  for  future  playwrights. 
In  the  Play  of  NoaJi's  Flood,  when  the  time  for  the  flood 
has  come,  Noah's  wife  refuses  to  enter  the  ark  and  a 
domestic  quarrel  ensues.  Finally  her  children  pull  and 
shove  her  into  the  ark.  When  she  is  safe  on  board,  Noah 
bids  her  welcome.  His  enraged  wife  deals  him  resounding 
blows  until  he  calls  to  her  to  stop,  since  his  back  is  nearly 
broken. 

The  Play  of  the  Shepherds  has  a  genuine  little  comedy 
inserted,  the  first  comedy  worthy  of  the  name  to  appear  in 
England.  While  watching  their  flocks  on  Christmas  Eve, 
the  shepherds  are  joined  by  Mak,  a  neighbor  whose  repu- 
tation for  honesty  is  not  good.  Before  they  go  to  sleep, 
they  make  him  lie  down  within  their  circle,  but  he  rises 
when  he  hears  them  begin  to  snore,  steals  a  sheep,  and 
hastens  home.  His  wife  is  alarmed,  because  in  that  day 
the  theft  of  a  sheep  was  punishable  by  death.  She  finally 

1  Smith's  York  Plays. 


THE  MORALITY  139 

concludes  that  the  best  plan  will  be  to  wrap  the  animal  in 
swaddling  clothes  and  put  it  in  the  cradle.  If  the  shep- 
herds come  to  search  the  house,  she  will  pretend  that  she 
has  a  child ;  and,  if  they  approach  the  cradle,  she  will  cau- 
tion them  against  touching  it  for  fear  of  waking  the  child 
and  causing  him  to  fill  the  house  with  his  cries.  She 
speedily  hurries  Mak  away  to  resume  his  slumbers  among 
the  shepherds.  When  they  wake,  they  miss  the  sheep,  sus- 
pect Mak,  and  go  to  search  his  house.  His  wife  allows 
them  to  look  around  thoroughly,  but  she  keeps  them  away 
from  the  cradle.  They  leave,  rather  ashamed  of  their  sus- 
picion. As  they  are  going  out  of  the  door,  a  thought 
strikes  one  of  them  whereby  they  can  make  partial  amends. 
He  decides  to  give  the  child  sixpence,  and  so  he  returns, 
lifts  up  the  covering  of  the  cradle,  and  discovers  the  sheep. 
Mak  and  his  wife  both  declare  that  an  elf  has  changed  their 
child  into  a  sheep.  The  shepherds  threaten  to  have  the 
pair  hanged.  They  seize  Mak,  throw  him  on  a  canvas, 
and  toss  him  into  the  air  until  they  are  exhausted.  They 
then  lie  down  to  rest  and  are  roused  with  the  song  of  an 
angel  from  Bethlehem. 

To  produce  this  comedy  required  genuine  inventive 
imagination ;  for  there  is  nothing  faintly  resembling  this 
incident  in  the  sacred  narrative.  These  early  exercises  of 
the  imagination  in  our  drama  may  resemble  the  tottering 
footsteps  of  a  child,  but  they  were  necessary  antecedents 
to  the  strength,  beauty,  and  divinity  of  movement  in  Eliza- 
bethan times. 

The  Morality.  —  The  next  step  in  the  development  of 
the  drama  is  known  as  the  Morality  play.  This  personified 
abstractions.  Characters  like  Charity,  Hope,  Faith,  Truth, 
Covetousness,  Falsehood,  Abominable  Living,  the  World, 
the  Flesh,  and  the  Devil,  — in  short,  all  the  Virtues  and  the 


140 


THE   ENGLISH    DRAMA 


Vices,  —  came  on  the  stage  in  the  guise  of  persons,  and 
played  the  drama  of  life. 

Critics  do  not  agree  about  the  precise  way  in  which  the 
Morality  is  related  to  the  Miracle  play.     It  is  certain  that 
the  Miracle  play  had  already  introduced  some 
abstractions.     In  one  very  important  respect, 
the  Morality  marks  an  advance,  by  giving  more 
scope  to  the  imagination.     The  Miracle  plays 
had  their  general  treatment  absolutely  pre- 
determined by  the  Scriptural  version  of 
the  action  or  by  the  legends  of  the  lives 
of  saints,  although  diverting  incidents 
could  be  introduced,  as  we  have  seen. 
In  the  Morality,  the  events  could  take  any 
turn  which  the  author  chose  to  give. 

In  spite  of  this  advantage,  the  Morality  is 
in  general  a  synonym  for  what  is  uninterest- 
ing. The  characters  born  of  abstractions  are 
too  often  bloodless,  like  their  parents.  The  Morality  under 
a  changed  name  was  current  a  few  years  ago  in  the  aver- 
age Sunday-school  book.  Incompetent  writers  of  fiction 
to-day  often  adopt  the  Morality  principle  in  mak- 
ing their  characters  unnaturally  good  or  bad, 
mere  puppets  who  do  not  develop  along  the 
line  of  their  own  emotional  prompting,  but  who 
are  moved  by  machinery  in  the  author's  hands. 

A  new  character,  the  Vice,  was  added  as  an  ad- 
junct to  the  Devil,  to  increase  the  interest  of  the 
audience   in    the    Morality    play.     The  Vice  repre- 
sented the  leading  spirit  of  evil  in  any  particular 
play,  sometimes  Fraud,  Covetousness,  Pride,  In- 
iquity, or  Hypocrisy.     It  was  the  business  of  the  Vice  to 

1  Stage  properties  of  the  Vice  and  Fool. 


FOOL'S    HEAD  1 


THE   INTERLUDE 


LATH 
DAGGER 


annoy  the  Virtues  and  to  be  constantly  playing  pranks. 
The  Vice  was  the  predecessor  of  the  clown  and  the  fool 
upon  the  stage.  The  Vice  also  amused  the  audience  by 
tormenting  the  Devil,  belaboring  him  with  a  sword  of  lath, 
sticking  thorns  into  him,  and  making  him  roar  with 
pain.  Sometimes  the  Devil  would  be  kicked  down 
Hell  Mouth  by  the  offended  Virtues,  but  he  would 
soon  reappear  with  saucily  curled  tail,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  play  he  would  delight  the  spectators  by 
plunging  into  Hell  Mouth  with  the  Vice  on  his 
back. 

The  Interlude. — Any  short  dramatic  incident,  such 
as  the  refusal  of  Noah's  wife  to  enter  the  ark,  or 
Mak's  thievery  in  the  Play  of  the  Shepherds,  inter- 
polated in  Miracle  and  Mystery  plays,  to  give  variety  and 
interest,  might  be  called  an  Interlude.  This  type  served 
to  bring  the  drama  closer  to  real  life,  and  became  for 
this  reason  one  of  the  important  foundation 
stones  of  the  Elizabethan  drama.  John  Hey- 
wood,  who  died  about  the  year  1580,  made  the 
Interlude  a  finished  play  by  itself,  and  gave  it 
a  place  of  its  own  in  dramatic  literature.  Dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  he  supplied  the 
royal  court  with  dramatic  amusements,  but 
on  account  of  his  religious  views  he  fled  to 
the  continent  when  Elizabeth  came  to  the 
throne. 

The  Interlude  was  short.  It  was  some 
times  given  between  the  courses  of  a  ban- 
quet or  immediately  after  it.  Such  a  play 
could  also  be  acted  before  guests  at  the 
home  in  connection  with  other  forms  of  entertainment. 


FOOL'S    HEADi 


1  Stage  properties  of  the  Vice  and  Fool. 


142  THE   ENGLISH   DRAMA 

The  Interlude  shows  the  modern  drama  in  its  chrysalis 
state.  Artistic  expansion,  complexity,  and  proportion 
are  yet  to  come,  but  the  development  will  now  proceed 
without  any  great  break. 

Further  Steps  toward  Shakespeare.  — Two  early  com- 
edies and  a  tragedy  are  worthy  of  note. 

Ralph  Royster  Doyster  was  written  by  Nicholas  Udall, 
master  of  Eton  College,  and  acted  in  1551,  thirteen  years 
before  the  birth  of  Shakespeare.  This  play,  founded  on 
a  comedy  of  Plautus,  shows  the  classical  influence  which 
was  so  powerful  in  England  at  this  time.  Ralph,  the  hero, 
is  a  conceited  simpleton.  He  falls  in  love  with  a  widow 
who  has  already  promised  her  hand  to  a  man  infinitely 
Ralph's  superior.  Ralph,  however,  cannot  understand 
why  she  should  not  want  him,  and  so  persists  in  his 
wooing.  She  makes  him  the  butt  of  her  jokes,  and  he 
finds  himself  in  ridiculous  positions.  The  comedy  amuses 
us  in  this  way  until  her  lover  returns  and  marries  her. 
The  characters  of  the  play,  which  is  written  in  rhyme, 
are  of  the  English  middle  class. 

Gammer  Gurtoris  Needle  is  probably  the  work  of 
John  Still,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells.  This  comedy 
was  acted  at  Christ's  College,  Cambridge,  in  1 566,  two 
years  after  Shakespeare's  birth.  This  play  borrows  hardly 
anything  from  the  classical  stage.  The  most  of  the  charac- 
ters of  Gammer  Gurtoris  Needle  are  from  the  lowest 
English  working  classes,  and  its  language,  unlike  that 
of  Ralph  Royster  Doyster,  which  has  little  to  offend, 
is  very  coarse. 

The  tragedy  of  Gorboduc,  in  part  the  work  of  Thomas 
Sackville,  the  author  of  the  Induction,  was  acted  in  1561, 
three  years  before  the  birth  of  Shakespeare.  This  is  the 
first  regular  English  tragedy  written  in  blank  verse.  Gor- 


THE  DRAMATIC  UNITIES  143 

boduc  is  fashioned  after  the  classical  rules  of  Seneca  and 
the  Greeks.  There  is  little  action  on  the  stage.  There 
is  any  amount  of  bloodshed  in  the  play,  but  the  spectators 
are  informed  of  the  carnage  by  a  messenger,  as  they  are 
not  permitted  to  witness  a  bloody  contest  on  the  stage. 

The  Dramatic  Unities.  —  If  Gorbodnc  had  been  taken 
for  a  model,  the  English  drama  could  never  have  attained 
Shakespearean  greatness.  Our  drama  would  then  have 
been  crippled  by  following  tlje  classical  rules,  which  pre- 
scribed unity  of  place  and  time  in  the  plot  and  the  action. 
The  ancients  held  that  the  play  should  not  represent  actions 
which  would,  in  actual  life,  require  much  more  than  twenty- 
four  hours  for  their  performance.  If  one  of  the  characters 
was  a  boy,  he  had  to  be  represented  as  a  boy  throughout 
the  entire  play.  The  next  act  could  not  introduce  him 
as  one  who  had  grown  to  manhood  in  the  interval.  The 
classical  rules  further  required  that  the  action  should  be 
performed  in  one  place,  or  near  it.  Anything  which  hap- 
pened at  a  great  distance  had  to  be  merely  related  by  a 
messenger,  and  not  acted  on  the  stage. 

Had  these  rules  been  followed,  the  English  drama  could 
not  have  painted  the  growth  and  development  of  character, 
for  it  is  not  built  or  developed  in  a  day.  The  genius  of. 
Marlowe  and  Shakespeare  taught  them  to  disregard  these 
dramatic  unities.  In  As  Yon  Like  //,  the  action  is  now  at 
the  court,  and  now  in  the  far-off  Forest  of  Arden.  Shake- 
speare knew  that  the  imagination  could  traverse  the  dis- 
tance. At  the  beginning  of  the  play  Oliver  is  an  unnatural, 
brutal  brother;  but  events  change  him,  so  that  in  the 
fourth  act,  when  he  is  asked  if  he  is  the  man  who  tried  to 
kill  his  brotner,  Oliver  replies  :  — 

"  'Twas  I ;  but  His  not  I." 


144  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

CHRISTOPHER  MARLOWE,   1564-1593 

Life.  —  The  year  1 564  saw  the  birth  of  the  two  greatest 
geniuses  in  the  English  drama,  Marlowe  and  Shakespeare. 
There  are  other  great  names  in  the  early  Elizabethan 
drama,  but  we  must  pass  them  by  for  the  study  of  the 
greatest. 

Marlowe,  the  son  of  a  shoemaker,  was  born  at  Canter- 
bury, and  educated  at  Cambridge.  When  he  graduated, 
the  dramatic  profession  was  the  only  one  that  gave  full 
scope  to  genius  like  his.  He  became  both  playwriter 
and  actor.  All  his  extant  work  was  written  in  about  six 
years.  When  he  was  only  twenty-nine  he  was  fatally 
stabbed  in  a  quarrel  in  a  tavern.  Shakespeare  had  at  that 
age  not  produced  his  greatest  plays.  Marlowe  unwittingly 
wrote  his  own  epitaph  in  that  of  Dr.  Faustus :  — 

"  Cut  is  the  branch  that  might  have  grown  full  straight, 
And  burne'd  is  Apollo's  laurel  bough.1' 

Works.  —  Marlowe's  great  tragedies  are  four  in  number : 
Tamburlaine,  Dr.  Faustus,  The  Jew  of  Malta,  and  Edward 
II.  No  careful  student  of  English  literature  can  afford  to 
be  unacquainted  with  any  of  them.  Shakespeare's  work 
appears  less  miraculous  when  we  know  that  a  predecessor 
at  the  age  of  twenty-four  had  written  plays  like  Tambur- 
laine  and  Dr.  Faustns. 

Tamburlaine  shows  the  supreme  ambition  for  conquest, 
for  controlling  the  world  with  physical  force.  It  is  such  a 
play  as  might  have  been  suggested  to  an  Elizabethan  by 
watching  Napoleon's  career.  Dr.  Faustus,  on  the  other 
hand,  shows  the  desire  for  knowledge  that  would  give  uni- 
versal power,  a  desire  born  of  the  Renaissance.  The  Jeiv 
of  Malta  is  the  incarnation  of  the  passion  for  the  world's 


CHRISTOPHER  MARLOWE  145 

wealth,  a  passion  that  towers  above  common  greed  only  by 
the  magnificence  of  its  immensity.  In  that  play  we  see 
that  Marlowe 

"Without  control  can  pick  his  riches  up, 
And  in  his  house  heap  pearl  like  pebble  stones, 

Infinite  riches  in  a  little  room." 

Edward  II.  gives  a  pathetic  picture  of  one  of  the  weakest 
of  kings.  This  shows  more  evenness  and  regularity  of 
construction  than  any  of  Marlowe's  other  plays,  but  it  is 
the  one  least  characteristic  of  him.  Others  manifest  more 
intensity  of  imagination,  more  of  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

Dr.  Faustns  shows  Marlowe's  peculiar  genius  at  its  best. 
The  legend  on  which  the  play  is  based  came  from  Ger- 
many, but  Marlowe  breathed  his  own  imaginative  spirit 
into  the  tragedy.  Faustus  is  wearied  with  the  barren  phi- 
losophy of  the  past.  He  is  impatient  to  secure  at  once 
the  benefits  of  the  New  Learning,  which  seems  to  him  to 
have  all  the  powers  of  magic.  If  he  can  immediately 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  such  knowledge,  he  says  :  — 

"  Had  I  as  many  souls  as  there  be  stars, 
I'd  give  them  all." 

In  order  to  acquire  this  knowledge  and  the  resulting  power 
for  twenty-four  years,  he  sells  his  soul  to  Mephistophilis. 
Faustus  then  proceeds  to  enjoy  all  that  the  new  order  of 
things  promised.  He  commands  Homer  to  come  from  the 
realm  of  shades  to  sing  his  entrancing  songs.  He  summons 
Helen  to  appear  before  him  in  the  morning  of  her  beauty. 
The  apostrophe  to  her  shows  the  vividness  and  exuberance 
of  his  imagination  :  — 

"Was  this  the  face  that  launched  a  thousand  ships 
And  burnt  the  topless  towers  of  Ilium? 


146  THE   AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 

Sweet  Helen,  make  me  immortal  with  a  kiss. 

Oh  !  thou  art  fairer  than  the  evening  air 
Clad  in  the  beauty  of  a  thousand  stars." 

Marlowe  left  a  fragment  of  a  lyrical  poem,  entitled  Hero 
and  Leander,  which  is  the  finest  production  of  its  kind 
in  the  language.  Shakespeare  accorded  him  the  unusual 
honor  of  quoting  from  this  poem. 

In  What  Sense  is  Marlowe  a  Founder  of  the  English 
Drama  ?  —  His  success  with  blank  verse  showed  Shake- 
speare that  this  was  the  proper  versification  for  the  drama. 
Before  Marlowe,  rhyme  or  prose  had  been  chiefly  em- 
ployed in  writing  plays.  Sackville  had  used  blank  verse  in 
Gorboduc,  but  his  verse  and  Marlowe's  are  as  unlike  as  the 
movements  of  the  ox  and  the  flight  of  the  swallow.  The 
sentences  of  Gorboduc  generally  end  with  the  line,  and  the 
accents  usually  fall  in  the  same  place.  Marlowe's  blank 
verse  shows  great  variety.  The  major  pause  frequently 
does  not  come  at  the  end  of  the  line.  The  poet  can  move 
over  the  field  of  dramatic  action  far  more  easily  than  he 
could  if  he  were  tied  down  to  the  necessity  of  making  his 
verses  rhyme. 

Lines  like  these  from  the  Jew  of  Malta  show  the  free- 
dom of  his  verse.  The  thought  is  often  not  allowed  to 
suffer  any  pause  at  the  end  of  the  line  :  — 

"Thus,  like  the  sad-presaging  raven,  that  tolls 
The  sick  man's  passport  in  her  hollow  beak. 
And  in  the  shadow  of  the  silent  night 
Doth  shake  contagion  from  her  sable  wings." 

Marlowe  cast  the  dramatic  unities  to  the  wind.  The  action 
in  Dr.  Faustus  occupies  twenty-four  years,  and  the  scene 
changes  from  country  to  country.  He  knew  that  he  was 
speaking  to  a  people  whose  imaginations  could  accompany 


CHRISTOPHER   MARLOWE  147 

him  and  interpret  what  he  uttered.  The  other  dramatists 
followed  him  in  placing  imaginative  interpretation  above 
measurements  by  the  foot  rule  of  the  intellect.  Symonds 
says  of  him :  "  It  was  he  who  irrevocably  decided  the 
destinies  of  the  romantic  drama ;  and  the  whole  subse- 
quent evolution  of  that  species,  including  Shakespeare's 
work,  can  be  regarded  as  the  expansion,  rectification,  and 
artistic  ennoblement  of  the  type  fixed  by  Marlowe's  epoch- 
making  tragedies.  In  very  little  more  than  fifty  years  from 
the  publication  of  Tamburlaine,  our  drama  had  run  its 
course  of  unparalleled  energy  and  splendor." 

General  Characteristics. — As  we  sum  up  Marlowe's 
general  qualities,  it  is  well  to  note  that  they  exhibit  in  a 
striking  way  the  characteristics  of  the  time.  In  the  morn- 
ing of  that  youthful  age  the  superlative  was  possible. 
Tamburlaine,  The  Jew  of  Malta,  and  Dr.  Faustus  show  in 
the  superlative  degree  the  love  of  conquest,  of  wealth,  and 
of  knowledge.  Everything  that  Marlowe  wrote  is  stamped 
with  a  love  of  beauty  and  of  the  impossible. 

Tamburlaine  speaks  like  one  of  the  young  Elizabethans 

"  That  in  conceit  bear  empires  on  our  spears, 
Affecting  thoughts  co-equal  with  the  clouds." 

Marlowe  voices  the  new  sense  of  worth  of  enfranchised 

man :  — 

"Thinkest  thou  heaven  is  such  a  glorious  thing? 
I  tell  thee,  'tis  not  half  so  fair  as  thou, 
Or  any  man  that  breathes  upon  the  earth. 
'Twas  made  for  man.  therefore  is  man  more  excellent.11 1 

The  one  who  runs  may  note  Marlowe's  faults.  They 
are  the  faults  of  youth  and  of  the  age.  There  are  exagger- 
ation and  lack  of  restraint  in  almost  all  his  work.  In 

1  Dr.  Faustus,  Scene  6. 


148  THE   AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

Tantbttrlaine,  written  when  he  was  twenty-two,  he  is  often 
bombastic.  He  has  hardly  any  sense  of  humor.  He  does 
not  draw  fine  distinctions  between  his  characters. 

On  the  other  hand,  using  the  words  of  Tamburlaine,  we 
may  say  of  other  writers  :  — 

"  If  all  the  heavenly  quintessence  they  still 
From  their  immortal  flowers  of  poesy," 

were  gathered  into  one  vial,  it  could  not  surpass  the  odor 
from  patches  of  flowers  scattered  here  and  there  in  Mar- 
lowe's garden. 

WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE,  1564-1616 

Parents  and  Birthplace.  — William  Shakespeare  was  the 
son  of  John  Shakespeare,  a  merchant,  who  in  1571  was 
chosen  for  the  chief  office  in  Stratford-on-Avon,  Warwick- 
shire. A  few  years  later  he  lost  the  most  of  his  property, 
and  with  it  his  position  of  commanding  influence.  The 
poet's  mother  was-  the  daughter  of  Robert  Arden,  a  well- 
to-do  farmer.  We  are  told  that  she  was  her  father's 
favorite  among  seven  children. 

Stratford,  where  William  Shakespeare  was  born  in  1 564, 
lies  in  the  midst  of  England's  fairest  rural  scenery.  When 
two  Englishmen  were  asked  to  name  the  finest  walk  in 
England,  one  chose  the  walk  from  Stratford  to  Coventry, 
the  other  the  walk  from  Coventry  to  Stratford.  A  short 
distance  northeast  of  Stratford  are  Warwick  with  its 
castle,  the  home  of  the  famous  King-Maker,  and  Kenil- 
worth  Castle,  whose  historic  associations  were  romantic 
enough  to  stir  the  imagination  of  a  boy  like  Shakespeare. 

Home  Training.  —  When  we  study  the  greatest  writer 
of  all  time,  it  is  desirable  to  learn  some  of  the  causes 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE 


149 


contributing  to  his  greatness.  In  1579  the  parents  of 
the  poet  sold  a  piece  of  land.  The  conveyance  is  thus 
signed  :  "  The  marke  +  of  John  Shackspere.  The  marke 
+  of  Marye  Shacksper."  Some  think  that  such  evidence 
tends  to  indicate  that  the  poet's  parents  could  neither 
read  nor  write.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  probable  that 
both  of  them  were  better  educated  than  the  average  well- 
to-do  inhabitants  of  our  best  cities  at  the  present  day,  for 
his  parents  learned  the  world  at  first  hand,  through  the 


SHAKESPEARE'S    HOUSE    (THE    POET'S    BIRTHPLACE) 

'exercise  of  their  own  senses  and  reflective  powers,  and 
not  at  second  hand  through  books.  Had  the  dramatist 
not  been  an  unusually  close  observer,  he  could  never 
have  written  his  plays.  Had  his  parents  been  in  the 
habit  of  referring  him  to  books  for  everything,  he  could 
never  have  become  a  close  observer. 

It  is    probable  that   his    mother   was   the    sympathetic 


HA  I,.  ENG.  LIT.  —  IO 


150  THE   AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

teacher  who  trained  him  to  miss  nothing  that  came 
within  range  of  his  senses.  We  can  fancy  her  pointing 
out  to  him 

"...  daffodils, 

That  come  before  the  swallow  dares,  and  take 
The  winds  of  March  with  beauty  ;  violets  dim, 
But  sweeter  than  the  lids  of  Juno's  eyes.1' 1 

We  can  imagine  that  from  her  rude  song,  as  she  walked 
with  him  over  the  Stratford  fields,  he  obtained  sugges- 
tions which  enabled  him  to  hold  captive  the  ear  of  the 
world,  when  he  sang  of  the  pearl  in  the  cowslip's  ear,  of 
the  bank  where  the  wild  thyme  blows,  of  the  greenwood 
tree  and  the  merry  note  of  the  bird,  of  the  beauty  of  the 
morning,  in  strains  like  this:  — 

''  Hark,  hark  !  the  lark  at  heaven's  gate  sings, 
And  Phrebus  'gins  arise, 
His  steeds  to  water  at  those  springs 
On  chaliced  flowers  that  lies ; 
And  winking  Mary-buds  begin 
To  ope  their  golden  eyes."  2 

What  he  learned  at  School.  —  In  all  probability  Shake- 
speare entered  the  Stratford  Grammar  School  at  about  the 
age  of  seven  and  continued  there  until  he  was  nearly 
fourteen.  The  typical  course  in  grammar  schools  of 
that  period  consisted  principally  of  various  Latin  authors. 
One  school  in  1583  had  twenty-five  Latin  books  on  its, 
list  of  studies,  while  the  only  required  works  in  English 
were  the  Catechism,  Psalter,  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  Neiv  Testament.  Children  were  put  to  studying 
Lilly's  Latin  Grammar  instead  of  learning  their  mother 
tongue.  Among  the  works  which  Shakespeare  probably 

1  The  Winter's  Tale,  IV.,  4.  2  Cymbeline,  II.,  3. 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE 


> 


CLASS    ROOM    IN    STRATFORD    GRAMMAR    SCHOOL  1 


read  in  Latin,  y£sop's  Fables  and  Ovid's  Metamorphoses 
may  be  mentioned. 

In  the  fourth  act  of  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor, 
Shakespeare  ridicules  the 
current  study  of  the 
schools.  Mrs.  Page 
there  complains 
to  the  parson: 
"Sir  Hugh, 
my  husband 
says  my  son 
profits  noth- 
ing in  the 
world  at  his  \ 
book."  In  the 
fifth  act  of 
Love's  Labor  s 
Lost,  we  are  shown  adults  making  a  pedantic  display  of 
just  such  wordy  learning  as  Shakespeare  was  forced  to 
acquire  at  school.  He  has  two  of  his  characters  thus 
criticise  such  "  learning  "  :  — 

"Moth.  (Aside  to  Costard?)  They  have  been  at  a  great  feast  of 
languages,  and  stolen  the  scraps. 

"  Costard.     O,  they  have  lived  long  on  the  alms-basket  of  words." 

Study  of  Human  Nature. —  In  some  way  or  other 
Shakespeare  managed  to  learn  more  about  human  nature 
than  any  other  mortal.  He  learned  to  watch  human 
beings  of  every  rank  with  the  same  sympathetic  eyes 
with  which  he  observed  the  daffodil  and  the  wild  bird. 
The  hopes  and  fears  of  others  appealed  to  him  almost 
as  strongly  as  his  own.  People  like  to  talk  with  one 

1  Tradition  says  that  Shakespeare  occupied  the  desk  in  the  farthest  corner. 


152  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

who  sympathizes  with  them.  No  author  can  become 
great  unless  he  draws  close  to  the  universal  heart  of 
humanity,  as  well  without,  as  within,  his  own  set  or 
coterie.  To  Shakespeare,  the  blacksmith  was  as  human 
as  the  lord.  An  eminent  critic  says:  "He  could  talk 
simply  and  naturally  without  a  touch  of  patronage  or 
condescension  to  a  hodman  on  his  ladder,  a  costermonger 
at  his  stall,  the  tailor  on  his  board,  the  cobbler  in  his 
combe,  the  hen-wife  in  her  poultry-yard,  the  plowman 
in  his  furrow,  or  the  base  mechanicals  at  the  wayside 
country  inn."  If  this  had  not  been  the  case,  the  Eliza- 
bethan drama  could  not  have  sounded  so  many  notes  of 
hope,  love,  fear,  ambition,  and  despair;  in  other  words, 
the  drama  could  not  have  been  complete.  Close  observa- 
tion is  the  child  of  sympathy.  Lines  like  these  show  his 
power  in  noting  what  to  most  would  be  trivial :  - 

"  I  saw  a  smith  stand  with  his  hammer,  thus, 
The  whilst  his  iron  did  on  the  anvil  cool, 
With  open  mouth  swallowing  a  tailor's  news  ; 
Who,  with  his  shears  and  measure  in  his  hand, 
Standing  in  slippers,  which  his  nimble  haste 
Had  falsely  thrust  on  contrary  feet, 
Told  of  a  many  thousand  warlike  French, 
That  were  embattailed  and  rank'd  in  Kent."1 

Life  in  London.  —  In  1582,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
William  Shakespeare  married  Anne  Hathaway,  a  woman 
nearly  eight  years  his  senior.  The  next  year  his  first 
child,  Susanna,  was  born,  and  two  years  later  Hamnet 
and  Judith,  twin  children,  were  added  to  his  family. 
He  and  his  parents  were  poor,  and  he  probably  real- 
ized that  Stratford  was  no  place  for  him,  if  he  was 

1  King  John,  IV.,  2. 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE  153 

to  provide  properly  for  his  wife  and  children,  and  re- 
gain the  family  estates  which  his  father  had  lost  a  few 
years  before.  Accordingly,  at  about  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  he  set  out  for  London  and  attached  himself  to  the 
theater.  A  tradition  says  that  he  not  only  shot  some  of 
the  deer  of  Sir  Thomas  Lucy,  but  also  lampooned  him 
in  cutting  verses  when  that  nobleman  prosecuted  him, 
and  that,  to  escape  being  severely  dealt  with,  Shakespeare 
fled  to  London.  There  is,  however,  no  dispute  about  the 
fact  that  he  went  to  London  and  that  he  became  both  an 
actor  and  a  writer  of  plays.  He  is  thought  to  have  acted, 
for  instance,  the  part  of  the  Ghost  in  Hamlet,  of  Adam 
in  As  You  Like  It,  and  of  Old  Knowell  in  Ben  Jonson's 
Every  Man  in  His  Humor. 

By  1592  Shakespeare  had  become  famous  as  a  drama- 
tist. We  know  this  from  the  attack  of  envious  contem- 
poraries. He  was  honored  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  he 
won  the  friendship  of  great  men,  like  the  Earl  of  South- 
ampton, to  whom  Shakespeare  dedicated  two  of  his  early 
poems,  Venus  and  Adonis  and  Lucrece. 

He  became  a  shareholder  in  at  least  two  theaters,  the 
Blackfriars  and  the  Globe.  He  grew  wealthy  and  pur- 
chased for  his  family  in  Stratford  larger  estates  than  had 
been  held  before  the  days  of  misfortune.  In  1597  he 
bought  in  Stratford  a  fine  large  house,  known  as  New 
Place.  A  little  later  he  bought  one  hundred  and  seven 
acres  near  his  birthplace.  He  occasionally  visited  Strat- 
ford during  these  years,  but  the  majority  of  his  time  was 
passed  in  London,  where  he  probably  wrote  almost  all 
his  plays. 

Last  Days  at  Stratford.  —  Not  far  from  1613  he  re- 
turned to  Stratford,  where  he  seems  to  have  passed  the 
remainder  of  his  days  in  quiet  with  his  family.  We  can 


'54 


THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 


infer  from  his  plays  that  he  had  for  some  time  looked 
forward  to  such  a  quiet  consummation  of  his  labors. 

There  was  in  Shakespeare's  time  more  or  less  odium 
attached  to  the  theatrical  profession,  to  the  playwright 
as  well  as  to  the  actor.  We  cannot  wonder  that  when 
he  felt  assured  of  his  independence,  he  wished  to  go 
where  he  could  live  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman. 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE  155 

One  of  his  Sonnets  shows  how  he  smarted  under  the  dis- 
grace attaching  to  his  profession  :  — 

"  O,  for  my  sake  do  you  with  Fortune  chide, 
The  guilty  goddess  of  my  harmful  deeds, 
That  did  not  better  for  my  life  provide 
Than  public  means,  which  public  manners  breeds 
And  almost  thence  my  nature  is  subdued 
To  what  it  works  in,  like  the  dyer's  hand." 1 

It  is  probable  that  he  wrote  no  more  for  the  stage  dur- 
ing these  years  of  retirement.  In  1616,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
two,  this  master  singer  of  the  world,  who,  in  De  Quincey's 
phrase,  was  "  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,"  died  and 
was  laid  at  rest  in  the  parish  church  at  Stratford. 


'  Shakespeare's  Non-dramatic  Work 

Narrative  Poems  and  Sonnets.  —  Not  all  of  Shake- 
speare's work  is  dramatic.  He  would  have  stood  among 
the  first  poets  of  his  age,  if  he  had  not  written  a  single 
drama.  The  best  of  his  non-dramatic  poems  are  Venus 
and  Adonis,  Lucrece,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  Son- 
nets. In  the  Venus  and  Adonis,  possibly  written  before 
he  left  Stratford,  we  find  frequent  allusions  to  the  natural 
phenomena  with  which  he  was  familiar  .in  his  Warwick- 
shire home :  — 

"  Once  more  the  ruby-color' d  portal  open'd. 
Which  to  his  speech  did  honey  passage  yield ; 
Like  a  red  morn,  that  ever  yet  betoken'd 
Wreck  to  the  seaman,  tempest  to  the  field, 
Sorrow  to  shepherds,  woe  unto  the  birds, 
Gusts  and  foul  flaws  to  herdsmen  and  to  herds." 

i  Sonnet  CXI. 


156  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

The  comparison  here  indicated  between  the  ruby  lips  of 
Adonis  and  a  red  morning  is  more  in  Lyly's  vein  and  less 
inevitable  than  almost  any  of  the  similes  in  Shakespeare's 
maturer  work.  In  these  early  non-dramatic  poems  he 
shows  conscious  effort  to  think  of  something  to  write,  but 
before  long  his  verse  came  to  him  as  easily  as  song  to  the 
skylark. 

In  his  Sonnets,  which  are  the  productions  of  a  more 
mature  period,  many  of  the  references  to  nature  are 
masterly.  The  following  lines  from  Sonnets  XXXIII. 
and  XVIII.  are  illustrations  in  point:  — 

"  Full  many  a  glorious  morning  hav.e  I  seen 
Flatter  the  mountain-tops  with  sovereign  eye, 
Kissing  with  golden  face  the  meadows  green, 
Gilding  pale  streams  with  heavenly  alchemy." 

"  Rough  winds  do  shake  the  darling  buds  of  May, 
And  summer's  lease  hath  all  too  short  a  date.1' 

But  the  chief  subject  of  the  Sonnets  is  love,  concerning 
which  he  speaks  in  such  noble  lines  as  these :  — 

"  Let  me  not  to  the  marriage  of  true  minds 
Admit  impediments.     Love  is  not  love 
Which  alters  when  it  alteration  finds." l 

Almost  every  phase  of  the  emotion  of  love  is  expressed 
in  these  Sonnets.  Saintsbury  says :  "  From  Sappho  and 
Solomon  to  Shelley  and  Mr.  Swinburne,  many  bards  have 
spoken  excellently  of  love :  but  what  they  said  could  be 
cut  out  of  Shakespeare's  Sonnets  better  said  than  they 
have  said  it,  and  yet  enough  remain  to  furnish  forth  the 
greatest  of  poets." 

1  Sonnet  CXVI. 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE  157 

The  Dramas 

Classification  of  the  Plays.  —  Shakespeare's  chief  work 
consisted  in  writing  plays,  which  were  acted  in  the 
theaters.  His  dramas  may  be  divided  into  three  classes : 
comedies,  histories,  and  tragedies.  We  may  indicate  the 
following  as  some  of  the  best  in  each  class.  They  will  be 
read  by  every  cultivated  person. 

Comedies  :  A  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream,  As  You  Like  It,  The  Mer- 
chant of  Venice,  The  Winter's  Tale,  and  The  Tempest, 

Histories  :  Richard  III.,  Henry  IV.,  Henry  V.,  Julius  Casar. 
Tragedies  :  Hamlet,  Macbeth,  Lear,  Othello,  Romeo  and  Juliet. 

Counting  plays  which  have  two  or  more  parts  as  one 
play,  we  find  that  the  Globe  edition  of  Shakespeare  con- 
tains thirty-four  different  plays. 

We  may  make  another  classification  from  a  different 
point  of  view,  according  to  the  time  at  which  the  plays 
were  written.  In  order  to  trace  the  growth  of  Shake- 
speare's mind,  it  is  necessary  to  study  him  chronologi- 
cally. By  such  study,  says  Furnivall,  "  Shakespeare's 
mind  is  shown  to  have  run  from  the  amorousness  and  fun 
of  youth,  through  the  strong  patriotism  of  early  manhood, 
to  the  wrestling  with  the  dark  problems  that  beset  the 
man  of  middle  age,  to  the  time  of  gloom  which  weighed  on 
Shakespeare,  as  on  so  many  men,  in  later  life,  when,  though 
outwardly  successful,  the  world  seemed  all  against  him, 
and  his  mind  dwelt  with  sympathy  on  scenes  of  faithless- 
ness of  friends,  treachery  of  relations  and  subjects,  ingrati- 
tude of  children,  scorn  of  his  kind,  till  at  last  in  his 
Stratford  home  again,  peace  came  to  him,  Miranda  and 
Perdita,  in  their  lovely  freshness  and  charms,  greeted  him, 
and  he  was  laid  by  his  quiet  Avon's  side." 


158  THE   AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

Four  Periods  of  his  Life.  —  We  may  mark  off  four  peri- 
ods in  Shakespeare's  life,  corresponding,  in  the  main,  to  the 
divisions  indicated  by  Furnivall. 

(1)  There  was  the  sanguine  period,  showing  the  exuber- 
ance of  youthful  love  and  imagination.     Among  the  plays 
which    are   typical    of   these    years    are    The    Comedy   of 
Errors,  A  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream,  Romeo  and  Juliet, 
Richard  II. ,  and  Richard  III.     These  were  probably  all 
composed  before  1595. 

(2)  The  second  period,  from  1595  to  1601,  shows  prog- 
ress in  dramatic  art.     There  is  less  exaggeration,  more 
real   power,    and    a   deeper   insight   into    human    nature. 
There  appears  in  his  philosophy  a  vein  of  sadness,  such 
as  we  find  in  the  sayings  of  Jaques  in  As  You  Like  It,  and 
more  appreciation  of  the  growth  of  character,  typified  by 
his  treatment  of   Orlando  and  Adam  in  the   same   play. 
Among  the  plays  of  this  period  are  The  Merchant  of  Ven- 
ice, Henry  IV.,  Henry  V.,  and  As  You  Like  It. 

(3)  We  may  characterize  the  third  period,  from  1601  to 
1608,  as  one  in  which  he  felt   that  the  time  was  out  of 
joint,  that   life   was   a  fitful  fever.      His  father   died   in 
1601,  after  great  disappointments.     His  best  friends  suf- 
fered what  he  calls,  in  Hamlet,   "the  slings  and  arrows 
of  outrageous  fortune."     In  1601   Elizabeth  executed  the 
Earl  of  Essex  for  treason  and  on  the  same  charge  threw 
the  Earl  of  Southampton  into  the  Tower.     Even  Shake- 
speare   himself   may  have   been    suspected,   and   he    had 
probably   been    deceived    by    some    one    whom    he    had 
trusted.      The    great   plays  of   this    period  are  tragedies, 
among    which    we   may   instance  Julius    Ccesar,   Hamlet, 
Othello,  Macbeth,  and  King  Lear. 

(4)  The    plays   of   his   fourth    period,    1608-1613,    are 
remarkable  for  calm  strength  and  sweetness.     The  fierce- 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE  159 

ness  of  Othello  and  Macbeth  is  left  behind.  In  1608 
Shakespeare's  mother  died.  Her  death  and  the  vivid 
recollection  of  her  kindness  and  love  may  have  been  strong 
factors  in  causing  him  to  look  on  life  with  kindlier  eyes. 
The  greatest  plays  of  this  period  are  Cymbeline,  The  Win- 
ter's Tale,  and  The  Tempest. 

While  the  dates  of  the  composition  of  these  plays  are 
not  exactly  known,  the  foregoing  classification  is  probably 
approximately  correct,  and  it  should  be  followed  in  study- 
ing the  development  and  the  changing  phases  of  Shake- 
speare's mind. 

Sources  of  the  Plots.  —  In  almost  all  cases  we  can  find 
the  sources  of  the  plots  of  Shakespeare's  plays  in  some 
old  chronicle,  novel,  biography,  or  older  play.  We  can 
find  in  Holinshed's  Chronicles  of  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland,  published  when  Shakespeare  was  thirteen  years 
old,  the  stories  of  Macbeth  and  Lear.  But  if  Shakespeare's 
genius  had  not  changed  the  old  tales  in  vital  points,  we 
should  not  have  had  at  the  close  of  King  Lear  the  stron- 
gest lines  he  ever  penned.  He  read  Plutarch's  Lives  for 
aid  in  writing  Julius  C&sar  and  Antony  and  Cleopatra, 
while  an  old  Italian  tale  gave  him  the  framework  for  part 
of  The  Merchant  of  Venice. 

Even  Shakespeare  could  not  make  brick  without  straw. 
Here  we  have  a  fresh  application  of  the  psychological 
truth  that  the  imagination  is  dependent  for  its  materials 
on  the  stores  of  knowledge  gleaned  from  the  world  by  the 
exercise  of  our  own  senses,  by  learning  from  other  people, 
and  by  thinking  over  what  we  have  thus  learned.  When 
a  comparison  is  made  between  these  dramatic  masterpieces 
and  the  old  chronicles  and  tales,  the  student  will  often  find 
that  Shakespeare's  plays  are  as  different  from  their  sources 
as  the  rose  from  the  soil  which  nourished  it. 


!(5o  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

General  Characteristics  of  his  Dramas 

The  Comic  and  the  Tragic  Spirit.  —  Shakespeare  is 
equally  successful  in  depicting  humor  and  pathos,  comedy 
and  tragedy.  The  next  greatest  English  writer  is  lacking 
in  the  sense  of  humor.  John  Milton  could  write  the  trag- 
edies of  a  Paradise  Lost  and  a  Samson  Agonistes,  but  he 
could  not  give  us  the  humor  of  A  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream,  The  Comedy  of  Errors,  or  As  You  Like  It.  We 
have  seen  that  the  next  greatest  dramatic  genius,  Mar- 
lowe, has  little  sense  of  humor.  Mrs.  Browning  correctly 
describes  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  as  filled 

"  With  tears  and  laughters  for  all  time."  * 

Mastery  of  his  Mother  Tongue.  —  His  wealth  of  expres- 
sion is  another  striking  characteristic.  In  a  poem  on 
Shakespeare,  Ben  Jonson  wrote:  — 

"Thou  had'st  small  Latin  and  less  Greek." 

Shakespeare  is,  however,  the  mightiest  master  of  the  Eng- 
lish tongue.  He  uses  15,000  different  words,  while  the 
second  greatest  writer  in  our  language  employs  7000.  A 
great  novelist  like  Thackeray  has  a  vocabulary  of  about 
5000  words,  while  many  uneducated  laborers  do  not  use 
over  600.  The  combinations  which  Shakespeare  has  made 
with  these  15,000  words  are  far  more  striking  than  their 
mere  number. 

Variety  of  Style.  —  Shakespeare's  style  is  remarkable. 
When  we  speak  of  the  style  of  Milton,  Addison,  or 
Macaulay,  we  have  some  definite  peculiarities  which  we 
can  easily  classify,  but  Shakespeare,  in  holding  the  mirror 

1A  Vision  of  Poets. 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE  l6l 

up  to  nature,  has  different  styles  for  his  sailors,  soldiers, 
courtiers,  merchants,  kings,  shepherds,  for  the  ale  wife 
Mistress  Quickly,  and  for  Lady  Macbeth,  for  Hamlet  the 
philosopher,  and  for  Bottom  the  weaver. 

To  employ  so  many  varied  styles  requires  genius  of  the 
highest  kind.  In  the  case  of  the  most  of  us,  our  style 
would  soon  betray  our  individuality.  When  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson  tried  to  write  a  drama,  he  made  all  his  little  fishes 
talk  like  whales,  as  Goldsmith  wittily  says. 

Breadth  of  Sympathy.  —  The  most  pronounced  character- 
istic in  his  plays  is  the  extent  of  his  sympathy  with  human 
kind.  There  are  few  intelligent  people  who  do  not  build 
a  barrier  between  the  larger  part  of  humanity  and  them- 
selves. When  the  glass  vessel  breaks  or  the  reed  fails  to 
sustain  the  weight,  the  most  feel  contempt  for  the  frailty 
and  the  weakness.  To  Shakespeare,  frailty  and  weakness 
were  as  absolute  facts  as  strength.  The  ivy,  the  myrtle, 
and  the  floating  water  lily  met  his  gaze,  as  well  as  the  oak. 
A  carpenter  might  have  noticed  only  the  oak,  but  Shake- 
speare's sympathy  enabled  him  to  see  more,  to  understand 
more,  and  to  interpret  more. 

Those  err  who  look  for  Shakespeare's  most  striking 
quality  in  the  myriad  directions  of  his  intellectual  action. 
He  studied  people  because  he  found  himself  entering  into 
their  joy  and  sorrow,  because  he  sympathized  with  them. 
It  was  his  sympathy  that  gave  wings  to  his  intellect  and 
rendered  its  flight  easy.  Many  Elizabethans  thought  that 
Ben  Jonson  had  more  cold  intellect  than  Shakespeare,  and 
their  judgment  in  this  respect  was  probably  right.  Sym- 
pathy puts  sun  and  moon  and  stars  in  the  sky  of  knowl- 
edge. Sympathy  may  create  no  new  objects,  but  it  throws 
a  matchless  light  on  what  was  previously  dark.  By  look- 
ing at  a  world  thus  illumined,  Shakespeare  was  able  to 


1 62  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

read  those  secrets  of  the  soul  which  are  never  revealed  to 
an  unsympathetic  eye.  In  one  of  his  great  tragedies  he 
wrote :  — 

"  Thou  canst  not  speak  of  that  thou  dost  not  feel." l 

The  centuries  have  been  strewn  with  the  failures  of  writers 
who  have  not  heeded  this  adage. 

In  his  dramas,  Shakespeare  enters  into  the  lives  of  such 
different  characters  as  Hamlet  and  Juliet,  Lear  and  Fal- 
staff,  Dame  Quickly  and  Perdita,  Henry  the  Fourth  and 
the  old  servant  Adam.  Shakespeare  identifies  himself 
with  the  philosophic  Hamlet  as  he  voices  his  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  world  :  — 

"  O,  that  this  too,  too  solid  flesh  would  melt, 
Thaw  and  resolve  itself  into  a  dew! 
Or  that  the  Everlasting  had  not  fix'd 
His  canon  'gainst  self-slaughter  !     O  God  !  O  God  ! 
How  weary,  stale,  flat  and  unprofitable 
Seem  to  me  all  the  uses  of  this  world  ! " 

Shakespeare  looks  at  the  world  with  the  hopeful  eyes  of  a 
lover,  as  he  hears  Juliet  say :  — 

"This  bud  of  love,  by  summer's  ripening  breath, 
May  prove  a  beauteous  flower  when  next  we  meet." 

When  Lear's  daughters  have  driven  him  out  into  the 
storm,  the  great  dramatist  takes  us  with  the  helpless  old 
King.  We  can  hear  him  call  to  the  elements :  — 

"...  here  I  stand,  your  slave. 
A  poor,  infirm,  weak,  and  despised  old  man : 
But  yet  I  call  you  servile  ministers, 
That  have  with  two  pernicious  daughters  joinM 
Your  high  engendered  battles  'gainst  a  head 
So  old  and  white  as  this." 

1  Romeo  and  Juliet,  III.,  3. 


WILLIAM   SHAKESPEARE  163 

We  descend  very  far  in  the  social  scale  when  we  enter  the 
tavern  at  Eastcheap  and  listen  to  the  conversation  of  the 
hostess,  Dame  Quickly,  with  Falstaff :  — 

"  Thou  didst  swear  to  me  upon  a  parcel-gilt  goblet,  sitting  in  my 
Dolphin-chamber,  at  the  round  table,  by  a  sea-coal  fire,  upon  Wednes- 
day in  Wheeson  week,  when  the  prince  broke  thy  head  for  likening  his 
father  to  a  singing-man  of  Windsor,  thou  didst  swear  to  me  then  as  I 
was  washing  thy  wound,  to  marry  me  and  make  me  my  lady  thy  wife. 
Canst  thou  deny  it?  Did  not  goodwife  Keech,  the  butcher's  wife, 
come  in  then  and  call  me  gossip  Quickly?  coming  in  to  borrow  a  mess 
of  vinegar ;  telling  us  she  had  a  good  dish  of  prawns ;  whereby  thou 
didst  desire  to  eat  some ;  whereby  I  told  thee  they  were  ill  for  a  green 
wound  ? " 1 

No  psychologist  has  ever  given  a  more  lifelike  illustration 
of  the  working  of  an  uncultivated  mind.  All  things  that 
arrested  her  attention  are  dragged  into  the  story,  in  the 
order  in  which  they  happened,  although  they  have  no  log- 
ical relation  to  the  progress  of  events.  Shakespeare  has 
the  same  sympathetic  insight  into  her  character  as  into 
that  of  Hamlet  and  of  Juliet.  From  Dame  Quickly  we 
may  turn  to  Perdita,  the  princess  of  young  womanhood. 
We  can  almost  see  Shakespeare's  brown  eyes  glisten  as 
he  tells  us  that 

"...  nothing  she  does  or  seems 
But  smacks  of  something  greater  than  herself."  a 

His  portraiture  of  women  of  varied  types  is  well-nigh 
marvelous.  Giles  says  :  "  The  fidelity  of  Shakespeare  to 
the  innermost  feelings  of  woman  is  one  of  the  wonders  of 
his  genius  to  women  themselves.  Mrs.  Siddons  marveled 
at  it.  Feminine  secrecies,  which  she  thought  no  mascu- 
line imagination  could  divine,  she  found  that  Shakespeare 

1  King  Henry  IV.,  Part  /.,  Act.  II.         2  The  Winter's  Tale,  IV.,  4. 


1 64  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

had  discovered ;  and  this  not  alone  in  the  maternal 
anguish  of  Constance,  or  the  queenly  grief  of  Katharine, 
but  even  in  the  stony  dungeons  of  Lady  Macbeth's 
bosom." 

No  class  is  untouched  by  the  great  dramatist's  sympa- 
thy. The  old  servant  in  As  You  Like  It  is  drawn  with  as 
kindly  a  pen  as  King  Henry  IV.  and  Prince  Hal. 

Shakespeare  made  this  rare  discovery  :  — 

"There  is  some  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil, 
Would  men  observingly  distil  it  out."  x 

When  a  character  like  Shylock  is  presented  by  a  great 
actor,  like  Sir  Henry  Irving,  the  audience  feels  flashes  of 
sympathy  for  the  Jew.  True  disciples  of  Shakespeare 
constantly  feel  those  touches  of  nature  which  make  the 
whole  world  seem  more  closely  kin. 

Universality. — Other  writers  may  have  equaled  Shake- 
speare on  some  one  side,  but  he  has  as  many  sides  as  life 
has  changes,  and  he  is  great  in  them  all.  He  penetrates 
almost  every  sea,  harbor,  creek,  and  rivulet  of  human 
emotion.  He  identifies  himself  with  the  joys  and  sor- 
rows of  the  king  and  of  the  shepherd,  of  youth  and 
of  age. 

Of  him  Ben  Jonson  truly  says :  — 

"  He  was  not  of  an  age,  but  for  all  time." 

Shakespeare  does  not  exhibit  some  popular  conceit,  folly, 
or  phase  of  thought  which  was  merely  the  fashion  of  the 
hour  and  for  which  succeeding  generations  would  care 
nothing.  He  voices  those  truths  which  appeal  to  the 
universal  heart  of  humanity.  The  grief  of  Lear  over  the 

1  Henry  V.,  IV.,  I. 


WILLIAM    SHAKESPEARE  165 

dead  Cordelia,  the  ambition  of  Lady  Macbeth,  the  loves  of 
Rosalind  and  Juliet,  the  questionings  of  Hamlet,  interest 
us  as  much  to-day  as  they  did  the  people  three  hundred 
years  ago.  Fashions  in  literature  may  come  and  go,  but 
Shakespeare's  work  remains. 

Comparative  Rank  of  his  Work.  —  Shakespeare  is  the 
greatest  writer  of  the  ages.  Goethe  says :  "I  do  not 
remember  that  any  book,  or  person,  or  event  in  my  life 
ever  produced  so  great  an  effect  upon  me  as  Shakespeare's 
plays.  They  seem  to  be  the  work  of  some-  heavenly 
genius."  A  cautious  critic  like  Hallam  writes:  "The 
name  of  Shakespeare  is  the  greatest  in  all  literature.  No 
man.  ever  came  near  to  him  in  the  creative  powers  of  the 
mind  ;  no  man  ever  had  such  strength  at  once  and  such 
variety  of  imagination." 

True  as  these  criticisms  are,  we  must  avoid  inferring 
that  Shakespeare  has  no  faults.  Some  of  his  earlier  work 
is  marred  by  the  shortcomings  of  the  age :  exaggeration, 
lack  of  pruning,  and  lack  of  repression.  There  are  also 
euphuistic  conceits  scattered  through  his  work. 

His  Influence  on  Thought.  —  If  a  person  should  master 
Shakespeare  and  the  Bible,  he  would  find  all  that  is 
greatest  in  human  thought.  With  the  exception  of  the 
Scriptures,  Shakespeare's  dramas  have  surpassed  all  other 
works  in  molding  modern  English  thought. 

Even  when  we  do  not  read  him,  we  cannot  escape  the 
influence  of  others  who  have  been  swayed  by  him.  For 
generations,  certain  modes  of  thought  have  crystallized 
about  his  phrases.  We  may  instance  such  expressions  as 
these  :  "  Brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit."  "  What's  in  a  name  ? " 
"  The  wish  was  father  to  the  thought."  ''The  time  is  out 
of  joint."  "There's  the  rub."  "There's  a  divinity  that 
shapes  our  ends."  "  Comparisons  are  odorous."  It  would, 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  II 


1 66  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

perhaps,  not  be  too  much  to  say  that  the  play  of  Hamlet 
has  affected  the  thought  of  the  majority  of  the  English- 
speaking  race. 

Shakespeare's  influence  on  the  thought  of  any  individual 
has  only  two  circumscribihg  factors,  the  extent  of  Shake- 
spearean study  and  the  capacity  for  interpreting  the 
facts  of  life.  No  intelligent  person  can  study  Shakespeare 
without  becoming  a  deeper  and  more  varied  thinker,  with- 
out securing  a  broader  comprehension  of  human  existence, 
its  struggles,  failures, 'and  successes.  If  we  have  before 
viewed  humanity  through  a  glass  darkly,  he  will  gradually 
lead  us  where  we  can  see  face  to  face  the  beauty  and  the 
grandeur  of  the  mystery  of  existence.  He  will  also  give  us 
an  added  something  difficult  of  definition ;  he  will  alche- 
mize the"  leaden  facts  of  life.  After  intimate  companion- 
ship with  him,  there  will  be,  in  the  words  of  Ariel,  hardly 
any  common  thing  in  life 

"  But  doth  suffer  a  sea-change 
Into  something  rich  and  strange."1 

BEN  JONSON,   15737-1637 

Life.  —  About  nine  years  after  the  birth  of  Shakespeare, 
his  greatest  successor  in  the  English  drama  was  born  in 
London.  Jonson  outlived  Shakespeare  twenty-one  years, 
and  helped  to  usher  in  the  decline  of  the  drama. 

The  son  of  a  clergyman  and  the  stepson  of  a  master 
bricklayer,  Ben  Jonson  received  a  good  education  at  West- 
minster School,  and,  unlike  Shakespeare,  learned  much 
Latin  and  Greek.  In  one  respect  Jonson's  training  here 
was  unfortunate  for  a  poet.  He  was  taught  to  write  prose 

1  The  Tempest,  I.,  2. 


BEN  JONSON 


167 


exercises  first  and  then  to  turn  them  into  poetry.  In  this 
way  he  acquired  the  habit  of  trying  to  express  unpoetical 
ideas  in  verse.  Art  could  change  the  prose  into  metrical, 
rhyming  lines,  but  art  could  not  breathe  into  them  the  liv- 
ing soul  of  poetry.  In  after  times  Jonson  said  that  Shake- 
speare lacked  art,  but  Jonson  recognized  that  the  author 
of  Hamlet  had  the  magic  touch  of  nature.  Jonson's  pen 
rarely  felt  her  all-embracing  touch. 

If  Jonson  served  an  apprenticeship  as  a  bricklayer,  as 


1 68  THE   AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

his  enemies  afterward  said,  he  did  not  continue  long  at 
such  work.  He  crossed  the  Channel  and  enlisted  for  a 
brief  time  as  a  soldier  in  the  Netherlands.  He  soon  re- 
turned to  London  and  became  a  writer  for  the  theater,  and 
thenceforth  lived  the  life  of  a  writer  and  a  student.  He 
loved  to  study  and  translate  the  classics.  In  fact,  what 
a  novice  might  think  original  in  Jonson's  plays  was  often 
borrowed  from  the  classics.  Of  his  relations  to  the  clas- 
sical writers,  Dryden  says :  "  You  track  him  everywhere 
in  their  snow."  Jonson  was  known  as  the  most  learned 
poet  of  the  age,  because,  if  his  plays  demanded  any  special 
knowledge,  no  subject  was  too  hard,  dry,  or  remote  from 
common  life  for  him  to  attempt  to  master.  He  knew  the 
boundaries  of  Bohemia,  and  he  took  pleasure  in  saying  to 
a  friend :  "  Shakespeare  in  a  play  brought  in  a  number 
of  men  saying  they  had  suffered  shipwreck  in  Bohemia, 
where  is  no  sea  near,  by  some  hundred  miles." 

Jonson's  personal  characteristics  partly  explain  why 
he  placed  himself  in  opposition  to  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
He  was  extremely  combative.  It  was  almost  a  necessity 
for  him  to  quarrel  with  some  person  or  with  some  opinion. 
He  killed  two  men  in  duels,  and  he  would  probably  have 
been  hanged,  if  he  had  not  pleaded  benefit  of  clergy.  For 
the  greater  part  of  his  life,  he  was  often  occupied  with  pen 
and  ink  quarrels. 

When  James  I.  ascended  the  throne  in  1603,  Jonson  soon 
became  a  royal  favorite,  and  was  often  employed  to  write 
masques,  a  peculiar  species  of  drama  which  called  for 
magnificent  scenery  and  dress,  and  gave  the  nobility  the 
opportunity  of  acting  the  part  of  some  distinguished  or 
supernatural  character.  Such  work  brought  Jonson  into 
intimate  association  with  the  leading  men  of  the  day. 

In   1616,  the  year  in  which  Shakespeare  died,  Jonson 


BEN  JONSON  169 

was  made  poet  laureate.  When  he  died  in  1637,  he  was 
buried  in  an  upright  position  in  Westminster  Abbey.  A 
plain  stone  with  the  unique  inscription,  "O  Rare  Ben 
Jonson,"  marks  his  grave. 

Plays.  —  Ben  Jonson's  comedies  are  his  best  dramatic 
work.  From  all  his  plays  we  may  select  three  which  will 
best  repay  reading :  Volpone,  The  Alchemist,  and  The 
Silent  Woman.  Volpone  is  the  story  of  an  old  childless 
Venetian  nobleman  whose  ruling  passion  is  avarice. 
Everything  else  in  the  play  is  made  tributary  to  this 
passion.  The  first  three  lines  in  the  first  act  strike  the 
keynote  of  the  entire  play.  Volpone  says:  — 

u  Good  morning  to  the  day ;  and  next,  my  gold !  — 
Open  the  shrine,  that  I  may  see  my  saint. 
Hail  the  world's  soul  and  mine ! " 

The  Alchemist  makes  a  strong  presentation,  not  of  the 
"eternal  gullible"  in  human  nature,  but  of  certain  forms 
of  gullibility  and  of  the  special  tricks  which  the  alchemists 
and  impostors  of  that  day  adopted.  One  character  wants 
to  buy  the  secret  of  the  helpful  influence  of  the  stars; 
another  parts  with  his  wealth  to  learn  the  alchemist's 
secret  of  turning  everything  into  gold  and  jewels.  The 
way  in  which  these  characters  are  deceived  is  very  amus- 
ing. A  study  of  this  play  adds  to  our  knowledge  of  a  cer- 
tain phase  of  the  times.  In  point  of  artistic  construction 
of  plot,  The  Alchemist  is  nowhere  excelled  in  the  English 
drama,  but  the  intrusion  of  Jonson's  learning  often  makes 
the  play  tedious  reading.  He  must,  for  instance,  by  intro- 
ducing the  technical  terms  of  the  so-called  science  of 
alchemy,  show  that  he  has  studied  it  thoroughly.  One 
character  speaks  to  the  alchemist  of 

"  Your  lato,  azoch,  zernich,  chibrit,  heautarit," 


THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH 

and  another  asks  :  — 

"Can  you  sublime  and  dulcify?  calcine? 
Know  you  the  sapor  pontic  ?  sapor  stiptic, 
Or  what  is  homogene,  or  heterogene?" 

Lines  like  the  following  show  that  Jonson's  acute  mind 
had  grasped  something  of  the  principle  of  evolution : — 

"...  'twere  absurd 

To  think  that  nature  in  the  earth  bred  gold 
Perfect  in  the  instant :  something  went  before. 
There  must  be  remote  matter." 

The  Silent  Woman  is  in  lighter  vein  than  either  of  the 
plays  just  mentioned.  The  leading  character  is  called 
Morose,  and  his  special  whim  or  "  humor  "  is  a  horror  of 
noise.  His  home  is  on  a  street  "  so  narrow  at  both  ends 
that  it  will  receive  no  coaches  nor  carts,  nor  any  of  these 
common  noises."  He  has  mattresses  on  the  stairs,  and 
he  dismisses  the  footman  for  wearing  squeaking  shoes. 
For  a  long  time  Morose  does  not  marry,  fearing  the 
noise  of  a  wife's  tongue.  Finally  he  commissions  his 
nephew  to  find  him  a  silent  woman  for  a  wife,  and  the 
author  uses  to  good  advantage  the  opportunity  for  comic 
situations  which  this  turn  in  the  action  affords.  Dryden 
preferred  The  Silent  Woman  to  any  of  the  other  plays. 

Besides  the  plays  mentioned  in  this  section,  Jonson 
wrote  during  his  long  life  many  other  comedies  and 
masques,  as  well  as  some  tragedies. 

Marks  of  Decline.  —  In  Jonson's  plays  we  may  study 
the  decline  of  the  drama,  and  in  doing  this  we  shall  the 
better  appreciate  the  genius  of  Shakespeare.  We  may 
change  Jonson's  line  (see  p.  164)  so  that  it  will  state  one 
reason  for  his  not  maintaining  Shakespearean  excellence:  — 

He  was  not  for  all  time,  but  of  an  age. 


BEN  JONSON  I/I 

His  first  play,  Every  Man  in  His  Humor,  paints,  not  the 
universal  emotions  of  men,  but  some  especial  humor.  He 
thus  defines  the  sense  in  which  he  uses  humor :  — 

"  When  some  peculiar  quality 
Doth  so  possess  a  man,  that  it  doth  draw 
All  his  effects,  his  spirits  and  his  powers, 
In  their  confluctions,  all  to  run  one  way, 
This  may  be  truly  said  to  be  a  Humor." 

Unlike  Shakespeare,  Jonson  gives  a  distorted  or  incom- 
plete picture  of  life.  In  Volpone  everything  is  subsidiary 
to  the  humor  of  avarice,  which  receives  unnatural  em- 
phasis^ In  The  Alchemist  there  is  little  to  relieve  the 
picture  of  credibility  and  hypocrisy,  while  The  Silent 
Woman  has  for  its  leading  character  a  man  whose  princi- 
pal "  humor  "  or  aim  in  life  is  to  avoid  noise. 

No  drama  which  fails  to  paint  the  nobler  side  of 
womanhood  can  be  called  complete.  In  Jonson's  plays 
we  do  not  find  a  single  woman  worthy  to  come  near  the 
Shakespearean  characters,  Cordelia,  Imogen,  and  Desde- 
mona.  His  limitations  are  nowhere  more  marked  than  in 
his  inability  to  portray  a  noble  woman. 

Another  reason  why  he  fails  to  present  life  completely 
is  shown  in  these  lines,  in  which  he  defines  his  mission  :  — 

a  My  strict  hand 

Was  made  to  seize  on  vice,  and  with  a  gripe 
Squeeze  out  the  humor  of  such  spongy  souls 
As  lick  up  every  idle  vanity." 

Since  the  world  needs  building  up  rather  than  tearing 
down,  a  remedy  for  an  ailment  rather  than  fault-finding, 
the  greatest  of  men  cannot  be  mere  satirists.  Shake- 
speare displays  some  fellow  feeling  for  the  object  of  his 
satire,  but  Jonson's  satire  is  cold  and  devoid  of  sympathy. 


1/2  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

Jonson  deliberately  took  his  stand  in  opposition  to  the 
romantic  spirit  of  the  age.  Marlowe  and  Shakespeare 
had  disregarded  the  classical  unities  (see  p.  143)  and  had 
developed  the  drama  on  romantic  lines.  Jonson  resolved 
to  follow  classical  traditions  and  to  adhere  to  unity  of  time 
and  place  in  the  construction  of  his  plots.  The  action  in 
the  play  of  The  Silent  Woman,  for  instance,  occupies  only 
twelve  hours. 

Miscellaneous  Work. — Jonson  also  wrote  some  lyrics, 
exquisite  as  well  for  their  delicacy  of  expression  as  for 
the  character  of  the  thought.  A  few  lin.es  from  one  of 
his  songs  will  show  both  these  qualities  :  — 

"  Drink  to  me  only  with  thine  eyes, 
And  I  will  pledge  with  mine ; 
Or  leave  a  kiss  but  in  the  cup, 
And  I'll  not  look  for  wine. 
The  thirst  that  from  the  soul  doth  rise 
Doth  ask  a  drink  divine."  1 

No  one  should  form  an  estimate  of  Ben  Jonson  without 
reading  the  pithy  prose  known  as  his  Discoveries  Made 
upon  Men  and  Matter.  His  critical  power,  as  well  as  his 
large,  ungainly  frame,  reminds  one  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 
In  the  Discoveries  we  meet  with  thoughts  as  vigorous  and 
as  tersely  expressed  as  we  find  in  the  conversations  of  the 
Doctor  (see  pp.  296,  297).  The  following  from  the  Dis- 
coveries may  be  compared  with  the  Doctor's  way  of 
stating  whatever  occurred  to  him  on  various  subjects,  or 
with  the  best  pedagogic  thought  of  to-day :  — 

"  A  youth  should  not  be  made  to  hate  study  before  he  know  the 
causes  to  love  it,  or  taste  the  bitterness  before  the  sweet ;  but  called  on 
and  allured,  entreated  and  praised." 

i  To  Celia. 


BEN  JONSON  173 

The  Discoveries  contains  Jonson's  famous  criticism  on 
Shakespeare,  in  which  occurs  this  statement,  noteworthy 
because  it  shows  how  a  great  contemporary  regarded 
him  :  "  I  loved  the  man  and  do  honor  his  memory  on  this 
side  idolatry  as  much  as  any." 

General  Characteristics.  —  Jonson's  plays  show  the  touch 
of  a  conscientious  artist  with  great  intellectual  ability. 
His  vast  erudition  is  constantly  apparent.  He  is  the 
satiric  historian  of  his  time,  and  he  exhibits  the  follies  and 
the  humors  of  the  age  under  a  powerful  lens.  He  is  also 
the  author  of  dainty  lyrics  and  forcible  prose  criticism. 

Among  the  shortcomings  of  his  plays,  we  may  specially 
note  lack  of  feeling  and  of  universality.  He  fails  to  com- 
prehend the  nature  of  woman.  He  is  not  a  sympathetic 
observer  of  manifold  life,  but  he  presents  only  what  is 
perceived  through  the  frosted  glass  of  intellect.  His  art 
is  self-conscious.  He  defiantly  opposed  the  romantic  spirit 
of  the  age  and  he  weakened  the  drama  by  making"  it  bear 
the  burden  of  the  classical  unities. 


THE  PRESENTATION  OF  ELIZABETHAN  PLAYS 

Theaters  and  Actors.  —  The  first  building  in  England  for 
the  public  presentation  of  plays  was  known  as  The  Theater, 
and  it  was  built  in  London  in  1576.  .  The  Globe  Theater, 
with  which  Shakespeare's  name  is  so  closely  identified,  was 
erected  across  the  Thames  at  Southwark  in  1593.  The 
public  theaters,  with  the  exception  of  the  stage,  were  roof- 
less. The  pit  corresponded  to  the  first  floor  of  our  modern 
theaters,  but  it  had  neither  chairs  nor  covering.  The 
great  bulk  of  the  audience,  all  the  common  people,  stood 
and  jostled  one  another  in  the  pit.  There  was  no  floor,  and 
hence  the  frequenters  of  the  pit  were  sometimes  called  the 


174 


THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 


"  groundlings."  Occasionally  an  overviolent  storm  would 
drive  them  out  of  the  theater  to  seek  shelter.  Around  the 
sides  of  the  theaters  were  boxes  for  those  who  could  afford 

them.  Admission  to  the 
pit  was  often  not  more 
than  a  penny,  but  the 
price  for  the  best  or  the 
most  fashionable  seats 
was  sometimes  as  much 
as  two  shillings.  The 
aristocratic  young  gal- 
lants, who  went  to  the 
theater  as  much  to  be 
seen  as  to  see,  paid  an 
extra  price  for  stools  on 
the  outer  edges  of  the 
stage.  The  play  usually 
began  at  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon.  There  was 
scarcely  any  scenery. 
The  stage  had  the  same 
setting  for  the  Forest  of 


CONTEMPORARY    DRAWING   OF    THE    INTERIOR 
OF  AN    ELIZABETHAN   THEATER  1 


1  "A  rude  sketch  of  the  interior  of  the  Swan  Theater,  London,  as  it  was 
about  the  year  1596,  was  not  long  since  brought  to  light  in  the  University 
Library,  Utrecht.  It  is  from  the  hand  of  a  learned  Dutchman,  Johannes  de 
Witt,  who  visited  England  toward  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  The  stage, 
strongly  supported  on  timber  bulks,  is  occupied  by  three  actors,  and  has  for 
all  its  furniture  a  bench  on  which  a  female  figure  is  seated.  Neither  curtains 
nor  traverses  appear.  At  the  back  of  the  stage,  which  is  open  to  the  weather, 
is  the  tiring-room,  to  which  two  doors  give  entrance,  and  above  this  rises  a 
covered  balcony  or  row  of  boxes  occupied  by  spectators,  but  available  at  need 
for  the  actors.  The  trumpeter  is  seen  at  the  door  of  a  covered  chamber  near 
the  gallery-roof,  and  from  its  summit  floats  a  flag,  having  upon  it  the  figure  of 
a  swan.  The  form  of  the  building  is  oval.  No  other  drawing  of  the  interior 
of  an  Elizabethan  theater  is  known  to  exist."  —  EDWARD  DOWDEN. 


THE   PRESENTATION   OF   ELIZABETHAN   PLAYS         175 

Arden  as  for  the  Danish  castle  of  Elsinore.  A  board 
marked  "Rome,"  "Venice,"  "Athens,"  or  whatever  place 
it  might  be,  announced  a  change 
of  scene.  Active  imagina- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  spec- 
tator was  needed  to  supply 
the  place  of  elaborate  scenery. 

The  plays  as  a  rule  were  prob- 
ably well  acted,  and  such  acting 
would  in  a  measure   make   amends 
for  lack  of  scenery.    The  actors  also 
endeavored  to  produce  some  scenic 
effect  by  elaborate  and  costly  costumes. 
The  occupants  of  the  pit  would  occa- 
sionally throw  apples  or  worse  mis- 
siles at  an  unsatisfactory  actor. 
Sometimes  the  disgusted  spec- 
tators would  rush  on  the  stage         THE  FOOL  OF  THE  OLD  PLAY 
to  beat  all  the  actors.      If  the 

fault  lay  with  the  playwright,  the  angry  audience  might 
cowhide  him  or  toss  him  in  a  blanket. 

Excellence  in  the  presentation  of  plays  may  seem 
strange  when  we  know  that,  prior  to  the  Restoration  in 
1660,  the  women's  parts  were  taken  by  boys.  .  Ophelia, 
Lady  Macbeth,  and  Desdemona  were  acted  by  boys.  We 
know  that  Shakespeare  complained  of  this  and  other  limi- 
tations of  the  stage.  He  makes  Cleopatra  resent  the  way 
the  stage  of  future  times  will  deal  with  her,  when  she 

says : — 

"  The  quick  comedians 
Extemporally  will  stage  us,  and  present 
Our  Alexandrian  revels,  Antony 
Shall  be  brought  drunken  forth,  and  I  shall  see 
Some  squeaking  Cleopatra  boy  my  greatness." 


176  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

These  limitations  were  not  without  compensation,  for 
they  forced  the  dramatist  to  do  his  utmost  to  produce 
plays  which  could  hold  the  attention  under  the  most  dis- 
advantageous circumstances.  The  spectators  were  also 
compelled  to  cultivate  their  imaginative  power  by  using  it. 
Modern  stage  settings  often  leave  little  for  the  imagination 
to  supply.  No  mental  power  can  grow  without  exercise. 

GENERAL  SUMMARY 

England  was  vivified  by  the  combined  influence  of  the 
Renaissance  and  the  Reformation.  Knowledge  was  ex- 
panding in  every  direction  and  promising  to  crown  human 
effort  with  universal  mastery.  The  Reformation  removed 
artificial  restraint  from  the  workings  of  the  human  mind. 
To  seek  for  knowledge  in  every  direction  was  no  longer 
considered  impious. 

The  wonders  of  the  New  World,  the  increase  of  com- 
merce, the  rise  of  the  middle  classes,  and  the  spirit  of 
patriotism  aroused  in  England  by  her  enemies  and  her 
victories,  made  the  nation  feel  like  a  youth  capable  of  all 
things.  The  poets  caught  and  reflected  the  spirit  in  the 
air.  All  forces  seemed  to  work  together  to  inspire  the 
Elizabethans  to  produce  the  greatest  literature  in  the  world. 
In  reaching  this  position,  they  owed  much  to  the  literature 
of  Italy,  but  the  English  pupils  were  soon  in  a  position  to 
instruct  their  Italian  teachers. 

The  prose  of  the  age  is  far  inferior  to  the  poetry.  The 
prose  of  Lyly  is  overwrought  with  conceits,  and  much  of 
Sidney's  is  too  poetical.  Hooker  shows  advance,  but  a 
comparison  of  his  heavy  religious  prose  with  the  prayer  of 
the  King  in  Hamlet  or  with  Portia's  words  about  mercy 
in'  The  Merchant  of  Venice  will  show  the  vast  superiority 


GENERAL  SUMMARY  177 

of  the  poetry  in  dealing  with  the  same  ideas.  Bacon's 
Essays  are  the  only  prose  that  has  stood  the  test  of  time 
well  enough  to  claim  many  readers  to-day. 

Although  the  poetry  covers  a  wide  range,  Edmund 
Spenser  is  the  only  great  non-dramatic  poet.  In  England 
the  drama  underwent  a  slow  growth  for  centuries,  through 
the  Miracle  plays,  Moralities,  and  Interludes,  to  the  plays 
of  Shakespeare.  Marlowe,  Shakespeare,  and  Ben  Jonson 
are  the  three  greatest  Elizabethan  dramatists,  but  they  are 
only  the  central  figures  of  a  group  of  singers. 

The  English  drama  in  the  hands  of  Sackville  imitated 
Seneca  and  followed  the  rules  of  the  classic  stage.  Mar- 
lowe and  Shakespeare  threw  off  the  restraints  of  the 
classical  unities,  and  the  romantic  drama,  rejoicing  in  its 
freedom,  speedily  told  the  story  of  all  life.  No  human 
being  was  too  high  or  too  low  to  receive  sympathetic 
attention.  This  drama  was  spun  out  of  the  very  web  and 
woof  of  life.  The  master  singer  of  the  age  set  the  soul 
of  life  to  music.  Later  poetry  considers  theories  and 
justifications  of  life.  The  Shakespearean  drama  is  neither 
theories  nor  justifications  of  life ;  it  is  life  itself. 

The  chief  excellences  of  the  age  consist  in  the  freshness, 
spontaneity,  and  universality  or  sympathetic  grasp  of  all 
life.  An  imagination  of  wonderful  activity  gave  varied 
concrete  interpretation  to  the  manifold  facts  of  life.  Such 
an  interpretation  was  necessary  for  the  drama  to  gain  the 
ascendency  and  represent  life  on  an  actual  stage.  Ben 
Jonson  shows  a  decline  in  dramatic  power  because  he 
lacks  Shakespeare's  universality.  The  faults  of  the  age 
sprang  naturally  from  unbridled  youthful  imagination  and 
the  belief  that  the  new  forces  acting  in  life  would  make  all 
things  possible.  Exaggeration  and  lack  of  repression  are 
manifest  not  only  in  Marlowe  and  the  minor  writers,  but 


178  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 

sometimes  even  in  Shakespeare.  In  the  majority  of  the 
minor  poets  there  are  exquisite  jewels,  little  known  because 
of  the  crude  accretions  which  surround  them. 


Gardiner,1  pp.  428-480 ;  Underwood-Guest,  pp.  427-441 ;  Green, 
Chap.  VII.;  Guerber,  pp.  233-252;  Powers's  England  and  the  Refor- 
mation, pp.  88-136;  Traill,  III.,  304-579. 

LITERARY 

Sackville.  —  The  best  parts  of  Sackville's  Induction  are  given  in 
Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  271-274,  and  also  in  Fitzgibbon's 
Early  English  Poetry,  pp.  317-326.  For  Sackville's  dramatic  work  see 
p.  1 80,  under  Gorboduc. 

What  is  there  remarkable  about  Sackville's  verse? 

Lyly,  Sidney,  Hooker,  and  Bacon.  —  A  selection  from  Lyly's  Euphues 
is  given  in  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  379-384.  A 
complete  edition  is  edited  by  Arber  in  his  English  Reprints,  478  pp. 
Craik  also  gives  in  Vol.  I.  (pp.  409-422)  selections  from  Sidney's 
Arcadia  and  Apologie  for  Poetrie,  and  (pp.  473-478)  from  Hooker's 
Laws  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  and  in  Vol.  II.,  pp.  14-27,  from  Bacon's 
Essays, 

Craik's  selections  from  Lyly,  Sidney,  Hooker,  and  Bacon  will  enable 
the  student  to  compare  the  structure  of  sentence,  general  style,  and 
worth  of  the  subject  matter  of  these  four  authors.  Whose  prose  style 
shows  most  improvement  over  Mandeville  and  Malory?  In  what 
respects  ? 

Edmund  Spenser.  —  The  Faerie  Queene,  Book  I.,  Canto  I.,  should  be 
read.  Maynard,  Merrill,  &  Go's  English  Classic  Series,  No.  27  (12 
cents),  contains  this  canto.  Kitchin's  edition  of  Book  I.  (Clarendon 
Press,  60  cents)  is  an  excellent  volume.  Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  I., 
pp.  284-340,  contains  representative  selections  from  all  of  Spenser's 
great  poems. 

1  For  full  titles,  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  1. 


READING   REFERENCES 

The  student  should  select  passages  that  show  (a)  Spenser's  melody, 
(£)  love  of  the  beautiful,  (c)  nobility  of  ideals,  and  (d)  subjective  cast 
of  mind.  Instance  stanzas  that  justify  calling  him  the  poets'  poet. 
Does  he,  as  the  only  great  non-dramatic  poet  of  the  age,  show  any- 
thing of  its  spirit? 

The  Drama1 

Miracle  Plays.  —  Pollard's  English.  Miracle  Plays,  Moralities,  and 
Interludes,  250  pp.  (Clarendon  Press,  $1.90,  the  best  single  volume  on 
the  subject),  gives  the  two  Miracle  plays  :  the  Chester  Play  of  Noafts 
Flood  (pp.  8-20),  and  the  Towneley  Play  of  the  Shepherds  (pp.  31-43), 
which  best  show  the  germs  of  English  comedy.  Manly's  Specimens 
of  the  Pre-Shakspearean  Drama,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  94-119,  also  gives  this 
Towneley  play.  Selections  from  these  two  may  be  found  in  Morley's 
English  Writers,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  71-73  and  95-99.  The  Play  of  the 
Shepherds  is  given  almost  entire  in  Morley's  English  Plays,  pp.  3-1 1 . 

Show  how  these  plays  differ  from  a  bald  narrative  of  scriptural  facts. 
Does  the  Play  of  the  Shepherds  show  constructive  plot,  apart  from  mere 
incident?  Give  some  reasons  for  calling  Miracle  plays  like  these  the 
foundation  of  our  drama.  What  general  purpose  did  they  serve  in 
their  time  ? 

Moralities.  —  The  best  Morality  is  that  known  as  Everyman  (Pol- 
lard, pp.  77-96).  If  Everyman  is  not  accessible,  Hycke-Scorner  may 
be  substituted  (Morley's  English  Plays,  pp.  12-18;  Manly's  Specimens 
of  the  Pre-Shakspearean  Drama,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  386-420). 

Does  the  Morality  show  a  forward  step  in  the  evolution  of  the  drama  ? 
What  were  the  favorite  characters  represented?  Is  the  ethical  spirit 
as  prominent  in  the  modern  novel  as  in  the  early  drama? 

Interludes.  —  The  best  Interlude  is  John  Heywood's  The  Four  Ps. 
Morley's  English  Plays,  pp.  18-20,  and  Symonds's  Shakspere^s  Prede- 
cessors in  the  English  Drama,  pp.  188-201,  give  as  much  of  this  Inter- 
lude as  is  necessary  for  the  student  to  read. 

What  were  some  of  the  purposes  for  which  Interludes  were  written? 
How  did  they  aid  in  the  development  of  the  drama? 

1  All  the  plays  mentioned  for  study  in  this  section,  with  the  exception  of 
those  by  Shakespeare  and  Jonson,  may  be  found  in  Cassell's  Library  of 
English  Literature,  Vol.  III.,  English  Plays,  edited  by  Henry  Morley  and 
published  by  Cassell  &  Co.,  London,  at  eleven  and  one  half  shillings. 


THE  AGE   OF   ELIZABETH 

Ralph  Royster  Doyster  and  Gorboduc.  —  Ralph  Royster  Doyster  may 
be  found  in  Arber's  Reprints  (40  cents),  in  Morley's  English  Plays, 
pp.  22-46,  and  in  Manly's  Specimens,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  5-92. 

Gorboduc  is  given  in  Morley's  English  Plays,  pp.  51-64,  and,  under 
the  title  of  Ferrex  and  Porrex,  in  Dodsley's  Old  Plays,  Vol.  I. 

In  what  different  poetic  forms  are  these  two  plays  written?  In  what 
does  Gorboduc  resemble  classical  models?  Why  would  Shakespeare's 
plays  have  been  impossible  if  the  evolution  of  the  drama  had  stopped 
with  Gorboduc? 

Marlowe.  —  Read  Dr.  Faustus,  edited  by  Gollancz  in  The  Temple 
Dramatists.  This  play  may  also  be  found  in  Morley's  English  Plays, 
pp.  116-128,  or  in  Morley's  Universal  Library. 

Does  this  drama  observe  the  classical  unities?  In  what  way  does  it 
show  the  spirit  of  the  Elizabethan  age?  Was  the  poetic  form  of  the 
play  the  regular  vehicle  of  dramatic  expression?  In  what  does  the 
greatness  of  the  play  consist  ?  What  are  its  defects  ?  Why  do  young 
people  sometimes  think  Marlowe  the  greatest  of  all  the  Elizabethan 
dramatists  ? 

Shakespeare.  —  Students  who  at  this  point  in  their  course  have 
sufficient  time  to  read  three  of  Shakespeare's  plays  should  choose  one 
tragedy,  either  Hamlet  or  Macbeth,  one  historical  play,  Julius  Caesar, 
and  one  comedy,  The  Merchant  of  Venice.  These  plays,  with  good 
explanatory  notes,  may  be  found  in  the  Eclectic  English  Classics  Series 
or  the  Rolfe  Series  (American  Book  Co.).  Among  other  good  annotated 
editions  of  separate  plays  are  those  of  Clark  and  Wright,  Verity,  and 
Arden.  Furness's  Variorum  Shakespeare  is  the  best  for  exhaustive  study. 
The  student  cannot  do  better  than  follow  the  advice  of  Dr.  Johnson : 
"  Let  him  who  is  unacquainted  with  the  powers  of  Shakespeare,  and 
who  desires  to  feel  the  highest  pleasure  that  the  drama  can  give,  read 
every  play,  from  the  first  scene  to  the  last,  with  utter  negligence  of  all 
his  commentators.  .  .  .  Let  him  read  on  through  brightness  and 
obscurity,  through  integrity  and  corruption ;  let  him  preserve  his  com- 
prehension of  the  dialogue  and  his  interest  in  the  fable.  And  when 
the  pleasures  of  novelty  have  ceased,  let  him  attempt  exactness  and 
read  the  commentators." 

For  effective  study,  the  student  must  bring  to  Shakespeare  wide 
sympathy  with  life,  keen  observing  powers,  and  the  capacity  for  reflect- 
ing on  what  he  sees  and  reads.  To  such  a  student,  Shakespeare  will 
speak  with  myriad  tongues.  Let  the  student  frequently  apply  to  himself 
these  two  lines  from  Coleridge :  — 


READING   REFERENCES  l8l 

"  O  Lady !  we  receive  but  what  we  give, 
And  in  our  life  does  nature  live." 

What  in  these  plays  specially  shows  Shakespeare's  (#)  variety  of 
style,  (<£)  power  over  laughter  and  tears,  (c)  strength  of  imagination, 
(d)  breadth  of  sympathy,  (e)  depth  of  feeling,  and  (/")  universality 
or  myriad-mindedness  ?  Is  there  anything  in  Marlowe  worthy  of 
Shakespeare  ?  In  what  special  points  does  Marlowe  fail  to  rank  with 
Shakespeare?  Take  a  certain  play  and  show  how  Shakespeare  treated 
the  classical  unities.  What  did  he  gain  by  this  treatment? 

Ben  Jonson.  —  The  Alchemist  may  be  found  in  the  Canterbury 
Poets  edition  of  his  Dramatic  Works  and  Lyrics,  edited  by  Symonds 
(40  cents)  ;  also,  with  Volpone  and  The  Silent  Woman,  in  Morley's 
Universal  Library,  No.  20  (40  cents). 

Why  is  the  plot  of  The  Alchemist  called  unusually  fine  ?  How  does 
Shakespeare's  humor  differ  from  Jonson's  ?  Compare  Marlowe,  Shake- 
speare, and  Jonson  in  their  power  of  portraying  women.  How  did 
Jonson  regard  the  classical  unities?  In  what  ways  does  he  show  a 
decline  in  the  drama?  Why  is  he  called  a  great  dramatist? 

Jonson's  Discoveries  Made  upon  Men  and  Matter  (Cassell's  National 
Library,  No.  169,  10  cents)  contains  his  striking  thoughts  on  educa- 
tion (pp.  98-101),  the  oft-quoted  criticism  of  Shakespeare  (pp.  47, 
48,  169-172),  and  a  number  of  fine  lyrics  (pp.  161-192),  such  as  "  Drink 
to  me  only  with  thine  eyes." 


WORKS  FOR  CONSULTATION  AND  FURTHER  STUDY 
(OPTIONAL) 
HISTORICAL 

Creigh  ton's  The  Age  of  Elizabeth. 
HalFs  Society  in  the  Elizabethan  Age. 
Warner's  The  People  for  Whom  Shakespeare  Wrote. 
Goadby's  The  England  of  Shakespeare. 
Beesley's  Life  of  Elizabeth.     ' 

Rye's  England  as  Seen  by  Foreigners  in  the  Days  of  Elizabeth  anct 
James  I. 
Froude's  History  of  England. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT. —  12 


1 82  THE  AGE  OF   ELIZABETH 


GENERAL  LITERATURE 

Saintsbury's  A  History  of  Elizabethan  Literature. 

Morley's  English  Writers,  Vols.  IX.,  X.,  XI. 

Taine's  English  Literature,  Book  II.,  Chaps.  II.,  III.,  IV. 

Whipple's  The  Literature  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth. 

Minto's  Characteristics  of  English  Poets,  pp.  163-367. 

Minto's  English  Prose  Writers,  pp.  197-251. 

Gosse's  A  Short  History  of  Modern  English  Literature,  pp.  73-128. 

Phillips's  Popular  Manual  of  English  Literature,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  103-284. 

Courthope's  History  of  English  Poetry,  Vol.  II. 

Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  275-566. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  267-598. 

Schelling's  Elizabethan  Lyrics. 

SPECIAL  AUTHORS 

Lyly,  in  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 
Symonds's  Life  of  Sidney. 
Sidney's  Apologie  for  Poetrie  (Arber  Reprints). 
Walton's  Life  of  Hooker. 
Hooker,  in  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 
Church's  Life  of  Bacon. 
Church's  Life  of  Spenser. 

Dowden's  Transcripts  and  Studies  (pp.  269-337)  contains  Spenser 
the  Poet  and  Teacher,  and  The  Heroines  of  Spenser. 

THE  DRAMA 

Pollard's  English  Miracle  Plays,  Moralities,  and  Interludes ;  Sped' 
mens  of  the  Pre-Elizabethan  Drama,  with  an  introduction,  Notes,  and 
Glossary. 

Smith's  York  Plays  (Clarendon  Press). 

Symonds's  Shakspere's  Predecessors  in  the  English  Drama. 

Bates's  The  English  Religious  Drama. 

Manly's  Specimens  of  the  Pre-Shakspearean  Drama,  3  vols. 

Dodsley's  Old  Plays,  Vols.  I.  and  II. 

Gayley's  Representative  English  Comedies. 

Collier's  History  of  English  Dramatic  Poetry,  3  vols. 


READING   REFERENCES  183 

Ward's  A  History  of  English  Dramatic  Literature,  3  vols. 
Lowell's  The  Old  English  Dramatists. 

Marlowe  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica  and  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography. 

Symonds's  Introduction  to  Marlowe  in  Mermaid  Series  of  Dramatists. 
Christopher  Marlowe  in   Dowden's   Transcripts  and  Studies,  pp. 

431-453- 

Symonds's  Ben  Jonson. 

Swinburne's  A  Study  of  Ben  Jonson. 

Symonds's  Selections  from  Ben  Jonson  in  Canterbury  Poets  Series. 

SHAKESPEARE 

Sidney  Lee's  A  Life  of  William  Shakespeare. 

Halliwell-Phillips's  Outlines  of  the  Life  of  Shakespeare. 

Wilder's  The  Life  of  Shakespeare. 

Fleay's  A  Chronicle  History  of  the  Life  and  Work  of  Shakespeare. 

Williams's  Homes  and  Haunts  of  Shakespeare. 

Hudson's  Life,  Art,  and  Characters  of  Shakespeare. 

Baynes's  Shakespeare  Studies  and  Other  Essays. 

How  Shakespeare^s  Senses  were  Trained,  Chap.  X.,  in  Halleck's 
Education  of  the  Central  Nervous  System. 

Harting's  The  Ornithology  of  Shakespeare  (excellent  for  young 
students). 

Rolfe's  Shakespeare  the  Boy. 

Dowden's  Shakspere  Primer. 

Dovvden's  Shakspere :  A  Critical  Study  of  his  Mind  and  Art. 

Coleridge's  Notes  and  Lectures  on  the  Plays  of  Shakespeare. 

Brandes's  William  Shakespeare :  A  Critical  Study,  2  vols. 

Ten  Brink's  Five  Lectures  on  Shakespeare. 

Mrs.  Jameson's  Characteristics  of  Women. 

Weiss's  Wit,  Humor,  and  Shakspeare. 

Gervinus's  Shakespeare  Commentaries. 

Dyer's  Folk-Lore  of  Shakespeare. 

Madden's  The  Diary  of  Master  William  Silence:  A  Study  of  Shake- 
speare and  of  Elizabethan  Sport. 

Boswell-Stone's  Shakespeare^s  Holinshed. 

Abbott's  Shakespearian  Grammar. 

Bartlett's  Shakespeare  Concordance. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PURITAN  AGE,   1603-1660 

Why  Termed  "Puritan  Age."  —  We  call  the  era  fol- 
lowing the  death  of  Elizabeth  the  age  of  Puritan  in- 
fluence for  two  reasons:  (i)  The  Puritan  standard  of 
morals  and  of  government  became  triumphant  during 
this  period  and  affected  the  character  of  the  literature. 
(2)  The  greatest  writer  of  the  age,  the  second  greatest 
in  English  literature,  is  the  Puritan,  John  Milton. 

We  must  remember  that  different  periods  of  English 
literature  overlap  each  other  to  a  considerable  extent. 
To  aid  the  memory,  we  make  classifications  which  are 
only  roughly  true.  We  have  seen  that  the  Elizabethans, 
Shakespeare,  Ben  Jonson,  and  Bacon,  lived  for  a  con- 
siderable time  after  the  death  of  Elizabeth.  Indeed,  some 
apply  the  term  "  Elizabethan  "  to  all  the  literature  written 
between  1558  and  1660,  because  some  of  the  influences  of 
the  age  of  Elizabeth  are  shown  in  Milton  and  in  the  minor 
poetry  of  the  period  here  called  the  Puritan  age. 

An  Age  of  Controversy.  —  There  are  some  characteris- 
tics which  sharply  differentiate  this  age  from  the  pre- 
ceding one.  It  was  an  age  of  controversy  in  literature 
and  politics.  The  pen  and  the  bullet  were  both  used 
to  advance  party  interests.  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  is  an 
epic  of  conflict  to  the  bitter  end,  an  epic  which  embodies 
something  of  the  spirit  of  the  times  through  which  he 
had  passed  in  his  manhood. 

184 


CHANGE  OF  IDEAL  185 

The  Elizabethans  did  not  allow  questions  of  politics  and 
religion  to  plunge  them  in  civil  war.  Theirs  was  a  time  of 
intense  patriotism,  when  Englishmen  were  united  to  resist 
the  power  of  Spain.  In  fifty-four  years  after  the  defeat  of 
the  Armada,  Englishmen  were  engaged  in  a  war  between 
King  and  Parliament. 

Why  the  Age  was  One  of  Conflict.  —  Elizabeth  with  all 
her  faults  had  the  qualities  that  enabled  her  to  rule  well 
and  to  keep  the  affection  of  her  subjects.  James  I.  (1603- 
1625),  the  son  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  was  the  first  of 
the  Stuart  line  to  rule  in  England.  He  was  contemptible 
and  ridiculous  in  appearance,  a  coward,  and  a  vain  and 
conceited  pedant.  He  believed  that  kings  governed  by 
divine  right,  and  received  from  the  Deity  a  title  of  which 
no  one  could  lawfully  deprive  them,  no  matter  how  out- 
rageously they  ruled. 

His  son  and  successor,  Charles  I.  (1625-1649),  tena- 
ciously adhered  to  this  view,  and  tried  to  govern  as  he 
pleased.  The  resulting  struggle  between  Royalists  and 
Puritans  finally  led  to  civil  war  (1642-1648),  in  which  the 
Puritans  under  the  leadership  of  the  great  Oliver  Cromwell 
were  victorious.  Charles  I.  was  tried  on  the  charge  of 
being  a  traitor  to  the  nation,  convicted,  and  beheaded. 
Oliver  Cromwell  then  ruled  as  Protector,  and  the  Puri- 
tans were  in  the  ascendency  until  1660,  when  the  Stuart 
line  of  kings  was  restored  in  the  person  of  Charles  II. 

All  these  events  left  their  mark  on  our  literature,  but 
there  was  another  still  more  potent  factor  affecting  both 
the  poetry  and  the  prose. 

Change  of  Ideal.  —  Men  took  a  view  of  life  different 
from  the  one  held  when  the  New  World  and  the  New 
Learning  promised  everything  that  heart  could  wish. 
When  Raleigh  and  Drake  were  sailing  on  their  voyages 


1 86  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

of  discovery,  and  English  vessels  were  returning  with  tons 
of  silver  from  the  mines  across  the  sea,  almost  everything 
seemed  possible.  The  revival  of  learning  also  promised 
to  enable  man  to  unravel  the  secrets  of  Nature  and  com- 
mand her  to  serve  him  as  he  pleased. 

These  expectations  had  not  been  fulfilled.  There  were 
still  poverty,  disease,  and  a  longing  for  something  that 
earth  had  not  given.  The  English,  naturally  a  religious 
race,  reflected  much  on  this.  Those  who  concluded  that 
life  could  never  yield  the  pleasure  which  man  anticipates, 
who  determined  by  purity  of  living  to  win  a  perfect  land 
beyond  the  shores  of  mortality,  who  made  the  New  World 
of  earlier  dreams  a  term  synonymous  with  the  New  Jeru- 
salem, —  were  called  Puritans. 

Their  guide  to  this  land  was  the  Bible.  Our  Authorized 
Version,  the  one  which  is  in  most  common  use  to-day,  was 
made  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  From  this  time  it  became 
much  easier  to  get  a  copy  of  the  Scriptures,  and  their 
influence  was  now  more  potent  than  ever  to  shape  the 
ideals  of  the  Puritans.  In  fa£t,  it  is  impossible  to  esti- 
mate the  influence  which  this  Authorized  Version  has  had 
on  the  language  and  the  literature  of  the  English  race. 

An  Imitative  Age.  — John  Milton  had  the  creative  capac- 
ity of  the  Elizabethans,  but  the  majority  of  the  literature 
of  this  age  is  imitative.  Strange  to  say,  Shakespeare  had 
fewer  imitators  than  John  Donne,  Ben  Jonson,  or  Edmund 
Spenser.  The  foreign  models  were  chiefly  Italian,  but 
their  influence  was  not  paramount 

John  Donne  (1573-1631)  is  of  interest  to  the  student 
of  literature  chiefly  because  of  the  influence  which  he 
exerted  on  the  poetry  of  the  age.  His  verse  teems  with 
forced  comparisons  and  analogies  between  things  remark- 
able for  their  dissimilarity.  An  obscure  likeness  and  a 


PROSE  187 

worthless  conceit  were  as  important  to  him  as  was  the 
problem  of  existence  to  Hamlet.  He  acquired  the  name 
of  "metaphysical"  poet  because  he  loved  to  look  at  the 
common  things  of  life  through  a  glass  darkened  with 
metaphysical  smoke.  He  wrote  some  good  poetry,  but 
that  found  fewer  imitators. 

The  lyrics  of  Ben  Jonson  were  imitated  by  the  minor 
poets,  some  of  whom  claimed  the  distinction  of  belonging 
to  the  "tribe  of  Ben."  Edmund  Spenser  exerted  an  influ- 
ence for  good  over  the  best  poetry.  Milton  called  him 
"  our  sage  and  serious  Spenser,  whom  I  dare  be  known  to 
think  a  better  teacher  than  Scotus  or  Aquinas." 

I.   THE  PROSE  OF  THE  PURITAN  AGE 

Variety  of  Subject.  —  Prose  showed  development  in  sev- 
eral directions  during  this  Puritan  age  :  — 

I.  The  use  of  prose  in  argument  and  controversy  was 
largely  extended.     Questions  of  government  and  of  reli- 
gion were  the  living  issues  of  the  time.     Innumerable  pam- 
phlets and  many  larger   books  were  written   to  present 
different  views.     We  may  instance  as  types  of  this  class 
almost  all  the  prose  writings  of  John  Milton  (1608-1674). 

II.  English    prose    dealt   with    a    greater    variety   of 
philosophical    subjects.       Shakespeare    had    voiced    the 
deepest  philosophy  in  poetry,  but  up  to  this   time   such 
subjects  had  found  scant  expression  in  prose. 

Thomas  Hobbes  (1588-1679)  is  the  great  philosophical 
writer  of  the  age.  In  his  greatest  work,  Leviathan ;  or, 
The  Matter,  Form,  and  Power  of  a  Commonwealth,  he 
considers  questions  of  metaphysical  philosophy  and  of 
government,  in  a  way  that  places  him  on  the-  roll  of 
famous  English  philosophers. 


1 88 


THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 


III.  History  had  an  increasing   fascination   for   prose 
writers.    Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  History  of  the  World  (1614) 
and    Lord    Clarendon's   History  of  the    Great    Rebellion, 
begun  in  1646,  are  specially  worthy  of  mention. 

IV.  Prose  was  developing  its  capacity  for  expressing 
delicate  shades  of   humor.      In  Chaucer  and   in   Shake- 
speare, poetry  had  already  excelled  in 

this  respect.      Thomas  Fuller  (1608- 
1661),  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  dis- 
plays an  almost  inexhaustible  fund 
of   humor  in   his  History  of  the 
Worthies  of  England.     We  find 
scattered  through  his  works  pas- 
sages like  these:  — 

"  A  father  that  whipped  his  son  for 
swearing,  and  swore  at  him  while  he 
whipped  him,  did  more  harm  by  his 
example  than  good  by  his  correction." 

Speaking  of  a  pious  short  person,  Fuller  says :  — 

"  His  soul  had  but  a  short  diocese  to  visit,  and  therefore  might  the 
better  attend  the  effectual  informing  thereof." 

Of  the  lark,  he  writes :  — 

"A  harmless  bird  while  living,  not  trespassing  on  grain,  and  whole- 
some when  dead,  then  filling  the  stomach  with  meat,  as  formerly  the 
ear  with  music." 

Before  Fuller,  humor  was  rare  in  English  prose  writers, 
and  it  was  not  common  until  the  first  quarter  of  the  next 
century. 

V.  Izaak  Walton's  Complete  Angler  (1653)  is  so  filled 
with  sweetness  and  calm .  delight  in  nature  and  life,  that 
one  does  not  wonder  that  the  book  has  passed   through 


THOMAS    FULLER 


PROSE 


189 


about  two  hundred  editions.     It  manifests  a  genuine  love 
of  nature,  of  the  brooks,  meadows,  flow- 
ers.     In  his  pages  we  catch  the  odor 
from  the  hedges  gay  with  wild  flowers 
and  hear  the  rain  falling  softly  on  the 
green  leaves :  — 


"  But  turn  out  of  the  way  a  little,  good 
scholar,  towards  yonder  high  honeysuckle 
hedge ;  there  we1!!  sit  and  sing,  whilst  this 
shower  falls  so  gently  on  the  teeming 
earth,  and  gives  a  yet  sweeter  smell  to  the 
lovely  flowers  that  adorn  those  lovely 
meadows." 


IZAAK    WALTON 


VI.    Of  the  many  authors  busily  writing  on  theology, 
Jeremy  Taylor  (1613-1 667),  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  holds 
the  chief  place.      His  imagination  was  so  wide  and  his 
pen   so   facile   that  he   has   been   called 
a   seventeenth    century   prose    Shake- 
speare.     Taylor's   Holy  Living  and 
Holy  Dying  used  to  be  read  in   al- 
most  every   cottage.      This   passage 
shows  his  powers  of  imagery  as 
well  as  the  Teutonic  inclination 
to  consider  the  final  goal  of  youth 
and  beauty:  — 

"  Reckon  but  from  the  sprightfulness 
of  youth,  and  the  fair  cheeks  and  full 
eyes  of  childhood,  from  the  vigorous- 
ness  and  strong  texture  of  the  joints  of 

five-and-twenty,  to  the  hollowness  and  dead  paleness,  to  the  loathsome- 
ness and  horror  of  a  three  days'  burial,  and  we  shall  perceive  the  dis- 
tance to  be  very  great  and  very  strange.  But  so  have  I  seen  a  rose 
newly  springing  from  the  clefts  of  its  hood,  and  at  first  it  was  fair  as 


JEREMY    TAYLOR 


IQO  THE   PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

morning,  and  full  with  the  dew  of  heaven  as  a  lamb's  fleece  .  .  .  and 
at  night,  having  lost  some  of  its  leaves  and  all  its  beauty,  it  fell  into 
the  portion  of  weeds  and  outworn  faces." 


II.    THE  POETRY  OF  THE  PURITAN  AGE 

The  Drama.  —  A  number  of  dramatists  who,  by  some 
Elizabethan  characteristics,  partly  compensate  for  much 
inferior  work,  wrote  plays  during  the  reigns  of  the  first 
two  Stuarts  (1603-1649).  In  so  far  as  strict  chronology  is 
concerned,  we  must  remember  that  Shakespeare .  pro- 
duced some  of  his  greatest  plays  in  the  reign  of  James 
I.,  and  that  Ben  Jonson  did  not  die  until  1637.  We 
shall  here  consider  the  most  notable  of  those  minor 
dramatists  of  the  Puritan  age,  who,  showing  the  decline 
of  the  drama,  may  yet  claim  some  kinship  with  their 
greatest  predecessors.  The  one  among  this  group  of 
dramatists  who  stands  nearest  to  Shakespeare  is  John 
Webster.  His  greatest  play,  The  Duchess  of  Malfi,  was 
acted  in  1616.  This  and  The  White  Devil,  which  ranks 
second,  in  their  own  limited  sphere  show  the  working  of  a 
master  hand.  Webster's  genius  comes  to  a  focus  only  in 
depicting  the  horrible.  He  found  a  congenial  task  in 
weaving  the  web  of  crime  and  retribution  that  entangled 
the  Italian  Duke  Ferdinand,  who  hired  assassins  to  mur- 
der his  sister,  the  Duchess  of  Malfi,  and  her  children. 
Just  before  one  of  the  most  terrible  scenes  in  the  English 
drama,  a  troop  of  madmen,  loosed  from  the  common 
asylum,  bursts  in  upon  the  Duchess,  and  the  foremost 
sings :  — 

"  O,  let  me  howl  some  heavy  note, 
Some  deadly  dogge'd  howl, 
Sounding  as  from  the  threatening  throat 
Of  beast  and  fatal  fowl." 


THE  DRAMA  19! 

As  the  assassins  tie  the  cord  around  her  neck,  the  Duchess 

says : — 

"  Pull,  and  pull  strongly,  for  your  able  strength 
Must  pull  down  heaven  upon  me.  — 
Yet  stay ;  heaven-gates  are  not  so  highly  arch'd 
As  princes'  palaces  ;  they  that  enter  there 
Must  go  upon  their  knees  [Kneels~] .  —  Come,  violent  death, 
Serve  for  mandragora  to  make  me  sleep  !  — 
Go  tell  my  brothers  when  I  am  laid  out, 
They  then  may  feed  in  quiet. 

[They  strangle  her." 

When  we  feel  Webster's  power  in  representing  the 
summit  of  human  anguish,  we  are  even  then  aware  of 
a  decline  in  the  drama.  We  miss  Shakespeare's  univer- 
sality, for  he  has  taught  us  that  the  world  is  one  of 
laughter  as  well  as  of  tears,  and  that  the  buds  of  May 
are  as  real  as  the  brown  leaves  of  October. 

John  Ford  (i586?-i639)  had  Webster's  fondness  for 
ghastly  subjects.  Ford  achieved  the  distinction  of  writ- 
ing Perkin  Warbeck,  which  is  worthy  of  being  placed  in 
a  class  second  only  to  Shakespeare's  historical  plays. 

Francis  Beaumont  (1584-161 6)  and  John  Fletcher  (1579- 
1625)  were  collaborators  in  dramatic  work.  In  their  verse 
we  may  often  find  rare  flowers  of  poetry  growing  out  of 
mire.  Lines  like  these  in  Philaster,  one  of  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  best  plays,  might  have  been  uttered  by 
Hamlet :  — 

"  Philaster.     O,  but  thou  dost  not  know  what  'tis  to  die. 
Bellario.      Yes,  I  do  know,  my  lord. 

'Tis  less  than  to  be  born  ;  a  lasting  sleep, 

A  quiet  resting  from  all  jealousy ; 

A  thing  we  all  pursue  ;  I  know  besides 

It  is  but  giving  over  of  a  game 

That  must  be  lost." 


192 


THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 


On  the  whole,  the  drama  during  this  age  steadily  pur 
sued  a  downward  course.      We  miss  the  earlier  creative 
power  and  grasp  of  all  life.     The  plays 
frequently  do  not  follow  the  lines  of 
orderly  growth  in  their  development. 
They  often  seem  to  be  constructed 
from  the  outside,  and  sensational 
scenes   are  too  frequently   intro- 
duced abruptly  to  stimulate  tem- 
porary   interest.      The    greatest 
blemish   on   the 
drama  of  the 
first  two  Stu- 
arts is  the 


FRANCIS    BEAUMONT 


JOHN     FLETCHER 


prevailing 

lack  of  refinement  in  thought 
and  language  and  the  frequent 
neglect  of  the  proper  moral  se- 
quence to  acts,  -  -  a  sequence 
which  should  be  as  inevitable  as 
any  effect,  when  the  efficient 
cause  is  operative.  Shakespeare 
shows  the  moral  result  indissolu- 

bly  linked  to  the  deed  itself.      In  Macbeth,  to  name  one 
of  many  instances,  he  makes  us  feel  that 

"We  still  have  judgment  here;  that  we  but  teach 
Bloody  instructions,  which,  being  taught,  return 
To  plague  the  inventor:  this  even-handed  justice 
Commends  the  ingredients  of  our  poison'd  chalice 
To  our  own  lips." 

Beaumont  and    Fletcher,  on    the  other   hand,  repeatedly 
neglect  the  fundamental  laws  of  moral  results. 


THE  CAROLINE  POETS  193 

In  1642  the  Puritans  closed  the  theaters,  and  the  course 
of  the  drama  for  this  age  was  run.  Although  the  indecent 
plays  of  the  Restoration  flourished  for  a  while,  a  considera- 
tion of  the  drama  hereafter  forms  but  a  minor  part  of  the 
history  of  the  best  English  literature. 

The  Caroline  Poets.  —  Carew,  Suckling,  Lovelace,  and 
Herrick,  all  adherents  of  Charles  I.  (Latin,  Carolus,  hence 
the  adjective  Caroline},  are  the  best  of  the  Caroline  school 
of  poets.  They  are  often  called  Cavalier  poets,  because 
they  sympathized  with  the  Cavaliers  or  Royalists. 

The  lyric,  Disdain  Rettirned,  of  Thomas  Carew  (1598  ?- 
1639?)  shows  both  the  customary  type  of  subject  and  the 
serious  application  sometimes  given  :  — 

"  He  that  loves  a  rosy  cheek, 
Or  a  coral  lip  admires, 
Or  from  starlike  eyes  doth  seek 
Fuel  to  maintain  his  fires, 
As  old  time  makes  these  decay, 
So  his  flames  must  waste  away." 

Sir  John  Suckling  (1609?- 1642)  is  a  perfect  specimen 
of  the  Cavalier  type.  His  poem  Constancy  begins  :  — 

"  Out  upon  it,  I  have  loved 
Three  whole  days  together; 
And  am  like  to  love  three  more, 
If  it  prove  fair  weather." 

From  Richard  Lovelace  (1618-1658)  we  have  this  ex- 
quisite stanza,  written  in  prison  :  — 

"  Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make, 
Nor  iron  bars  a  cage ; 
Minds  innocent  and  quiet  take 
That  for  an  hermitage  ; 


194  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

If  I  have  freedom  in  my  love, 
And  in  my  soul  am  free, 
Angels  alone,  that  soar  above, 
Enjoy  such  liberty."  1 

By  far  the  greatest  of  this  school  is  Robert  Herrick 
(1591-1674),  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.  He 
left  nearly  thirteen  hundred  poems.  He  occupies  the 
very  front  rank  of  the  second  class  of 
lyrical  poets.  The  two  collections  of 
his  poems  are  entitled  Hesperidcs  and 
Noble  Numbers,  the  latter  a  volume  of 
religious  poems.  His  work  is  uneven, 
and  much  of  it  is  unworthy  to  be  read. 
There  is,  however,  sufficient  to  merit 
attention.  His  Corinna's  Going  a- 
Maying-  gives  the  full  freshness  of 
the  meadow.  His  lyric  To  the  Vir- 

R08ERT   HERRICK  gtHS  IS   Often   qUOted  \ 

"  Gather  ye  rose-buds  while  ye  may : 
Old  Time  is  still  a-flying ; 
And  this  same  flower  that  smiles  to-day, 
To-morrow  will  be  dying." 

A  stanza  like  this  from  his  religious  poem  The  Litany 
shows  his  power  over  melody :  — 

"When  the  passing-bell  doth  toll 
And  the  furies  in  a  shoal 
Come  to  fright  a  parting  soul, 
Sweet  Spirit,  comfort  me." 

Characteristics  of  the  School. — The  designation  "Caro- 
line school "  is  applied  to  a  group  of  imitative  poets  who 

1  To  Althea  from  Prison. 


THE  CAROLINE   POETS  195 

flourished  chiefly  during  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  (1625- 
1649).  The  lyrical  poems  of  Ben  Jonson  and  the  poetry 
of  John  Donne  were  their  chief  models.  The  greatest  of 
the  school,  Robert  Herrick,  thus  addresses  Ben  Jonson :  — 

"  Candles  I'll  give  to  thee, 
And  a  new  altar ; 
And  thou,  Saint  Ben,  shall  be 
Writ  in  my  psalter." x 

To  characterize  the  Caroline  school  by  one  phrase,  we 
might  call  them  lyrical  poets  in  lighter  vein.  They 
usually  wrote  on  such  subjects  as  the  color  in  a  maiden's 
cheek  and  lips,  blossoms,  meadows,  May  days,  bridal 
cakes,  the  paleness  of  a  lover,  and 

"...  wassail  bowls  to  drink, 
Spiced  to  the  brink,"  * 

but  sometimes  religious  subjects  were  chosen,  when  these 
lighter  things  failed  to  satisfy. 

Among  the  special  defects  of  this  school  may  be 
mentioned  overwrought  conceits,  strained  metaphors  and 
similes,  and  occasional  attempts  at  obscure  philosophical 
hairsplitting.  These  conceits  and  the  misuse  of  figures 
are  seen  at  their  very  worst  in  these  two  lines  from 
Richard  Crashaw  (:6i3?-i649?),  in  which  he  calls  the 
weeping  eyes  of  Mary  Magdalene 

"Two  walking  baths,  two  weeping  motions, 
Portable  and  compendious  oceans." 

But  we  find  occasional  stanzas  of  such  rare  sweetness 
that  they  are  worthy  to  linger  in  our  memory. 

1  Prayer  to  Ben  Jonson. 

2  Herrick  :  A  Thanksgiving  to  God. 


196 


THE  PURITAN  AGE.  1603-1660 


JOHN   MILTON,   1608-1674 

His  Youth. — The  second  greatest  English  poet  was 
born  in  London,  eight  years  before  the  death  of  Shake- 
speare. John  Milton's  father  followed  the  business  of  a 
scrivener  and  so  drew  wills  and  deeds  and  also  invested 
money  for  clients.  He  prospered  at  this  calling,  and 
his  family  did  not  suffer  for  want  of  money.  He  was  a 
man  of  much  culture  and  a  musical  composer  of  con- 
siderable note. 

In  1608  the  poet  was  born  and  named  after  his  father. 
The  child  seems  to  have  given  early  promise  of  future 


JOHN   MILTON 


197 


greatness.     His  parents  had  rare  judgment ;  they  believed 
in  the  boy,  and,  seeing  that  he  acted  as  if  guided  by  a 
high  ideal,  they  generally  allowed  him  to  do  whatever  he 
chose.     They  had  the  painter  to  the  court  execute  a  por- 
trait of  the  child  at  the  age  of  ten.      The  painting  still 
exists,   and  shows  him  to   have  been   "a  sweet,   serious, 
round-headed  boy."     They  employed 
the  best  of  teachers  for  him  at  home, 
and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was 
ready  for  Cambridge  University, 
where  he  took  both  the  B.A.  and 
M.A.  degrees. 

His  Early  Manhood  and  Life 
at  Horton.  —  In  1632  Milton  left 
Cambridge  and  went  to  live  with 
his  father  in  a  country  home  at 
Horton,  about  twenty  miles  west 
of  London.  Milton  had  been 
intended  for  the  church,  but  he 

felt  that  he  could  not  subscribe  to  its  intolerance,  and 
that  he  had  another  mission  to  perform.  His  father  ac- 
cordingly provided  sufficient  funds  for  maintaining  him  at 
Horton  in  a  life  of  studious  leisure  for  over  five  years. 
The  poet's  greatest  biographer,  David  Masson,  says: 
"  Until  Milton  was  thirty-two  years  of  age,  if  even  then, 
he  did  not  earn  a  penny  for  himself."  Such  a  course 
would  ruin  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  talented 
young  men,  but  it  was  the  making  of  Milton.  He  spent 
those  years  in  careful  study  and  in  writing  his  immortal 
early  poems. 

In  1638,  when  he  was  in  his  thirtieth  year,  he  deter- 
mined to  broaden  his  views  by  travel.  He  went  to  Italy, 
which  the  Englishman  of  his  day  still  regarded  as  the 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT. —  13 


JOHN    MILTON,    AET.   1O 


198  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

home  of  art,  culture,  and  song.  After  about  fifteen 
months  abroad,  he  heard  that  his  countrymen  were  on  the 
verge  of  civil  war,  and  he  returned  home  to  play  his  part 
in  the  mighty  tragedy  of  the  times. 

Milton's  "Left  Hand."  —  In  1642  the  Civil  War  broke 
out  between  the  Royalists  and  the  Puritans.  He  took 
sides  in  the  struggle  for  liberty,  not  with  his  sword,  but 
with  his  pen.  During  this  time  he  wrote  little  but  prose. 
In  doing  this,  Milton  himself  says :  "  I  have  the  use,  as  I 
may  account  it,  but  of  my  left  hand." 

With  that  "  left  hand  "  he  wrote  much  prose.  There  is 
one  common  quality  running  through  all  his  prose  works, 
although  they  treat  of  the  most  varied  subjects.  Every 
one  of  these  works  strikes  a  blow  for  fuller  liberty  in  some 
direction ;  for  more  liberty  in  church,  in  state,  and  in 
home  relations,  for  the  freedom  of  expressing  opinions, 
and  for  a  system  of  education  which  should  break  away 
from  the  leading  strings  of  the  inferior  methods  of  the 
past.  His  greatest  prose  work  is  the  Areopagitica :  a 
Speech  for  the  Liberty  of  Unlicensed  Printing. 

Much  of  his  prose  is  poetic  and  adorned  with  grand  fig- 
ures of  rhetoric.  He  frequently  follows  the  Latin  order, 
and  inverts  his  sentences,  which  are  often  unreasonably 
long.  Sometimes  his  "left  hand"  astonishes  us  by  slinging 
mud  at  his  opponents,  and  we  eagerly  await  the  loosing  of 
the  right  hand  which  was  to  give  us  the  Paradise  Lost. 

His  Blindness. — The  English  government  from  1649 
to  1660  is  known  as  the  Commonwealth.  The  two  most 
striking  figures  of  the  time  were  Oliver  Cromwell,  who 
in  1653  was  styled  the  Lord  Protector,  and  John  Milton, 
who  was  the  Secretary  for  Foreign  Tongues.  All  his 
letters  to  the  various  foreign  powers  were  written  in  Latin. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  European  scholars,  a  professor  at 


JOHN   MILTON  199 

Leyden,  named  Salmasius,  had  written  a  book  attacking 
the  Commonwealth  and  upholding  the  late  King.  The 
Council  requested  Milton  to  write  a  fitting  answer.  His 
eyes  were  already  failing  him,  and  he  had  been  warned  to 
rest  them.  He  refused  to  do  this,  saying  that  he  would  will- 
ingly sacrifice  his  eyesight  on  the  altar  of  liberty.  He  ac- 
cordingly wrote  in  reply  his  Pro  Populo  Anglicano  Defen- 
siOy  a  Latin  work,  which  was  published  in  1651.  This 
effort  cost  him  his  eyesight.  In  1652,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
three,  he  was  totally  blind.  In  his  Paradise  Lost,  he  thus 
alludes  to  his  affliction :  — 

"  Thus  with  the  year 
Seasons  return ;  but  not  to  me  returns 
Day,  o'r  the  sweet  approach  of  even  or  morn, 
Or  sight  of  vernal  bloom  or  summer's  rose, 
Or  flocks,  or  herds,  or  human  face  divine ; 
But  clouds  instead  and  ever-during  dark 
Surrounds  me,  from  the  cheerful  ways  of  men 
Cut  off." 

Life  after  the  Restoration.  —  In  1660,  Charles  II.  was 
made  king.  The  leaders  of  the  Commonwealth  had  to 
flee  for  their  lives.  Some  went  to  America  for  safety  and 
some  were  caught  and  executed.  The  body  of  Cromwell 
was  taken  from  its  grave  in  Westminster  Abbey,  sus- 
pended from  the  gallows,  and  left  to  dangle  there.  Milton 
was  concealed  by  a  friend  until  the  worst  of  the  storm  had 
blown  over.  Some  influential  friends  interceded  for  him, 
and  his  blindness  probably  won  him  sympathy. 

During  his  old  age  he  was  largely  dependent  on  the 
kindness  of  friends  to  read  to  him,  and  to  act  as  his  aman- 
uenses whenever  he  wished  to  write  anything.  Unfortu- 
nately he  had  formed  his  ideas  of  woman  in  the  light  of 
the  old  dispensation.  He  had  not  educated  his  three 


200  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

daughters  sufficiently  for  them  to  take  a  sympathetic  in- 
terest in  his  work,  and  they  resented  his  calling  on  them 
to  help  him. 

During  this  period  of  his  life,  when  he  was  totally  blind, 
he  wrote  Paradise  Lost,  Paradise  Regained,  and  Samson 
Agonist es.  He  died  in  1674,  and  was  buried  beside  his 
father  in  the  chancel  of  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate,  London. 

Minor  Poems. —  In  1629,  while  Milton  was  a  student  at 
Cambridge,  and  only  twenty-one  years  old,  he  wrote  a  fine 
lyrical  poem,  entitled  On  the  Morning  of  Clirist  's  Nativity. 
These  244  lines  of  verse  show  that  he  did  not  need  to  be 
taught  the  melody  of  song  any  more  than  a  young  night- 
ingale. 

Four  remarkable  poems  were  written  during  his  years  of 
studious  leisure  at  Horton, — L  Allegro,  II  Penseroso,  Comus, 
and  Lycidas.  L*  Allegro  describes  the  charms  of  a  merry 
social  life,  and  //  Penseroso  voices  the  quiet  but  deep  en- 
joyment of  the  scholar  in  retirement.  These  two  poems 
have  been  universal  favorites. 

Comus  is  a  species  of  dramatic  composition  known  as  a 
Masque,  and  it  is  the  greatest  of  its  class.  Some  critics, 
like  Taine  and  Saintsbury,  consider  this  the  finest  of 
Milton's  productions.  The  1023  lines  in  Comus  can  soon 
be  read,  and  there  are  few  poems  of  equal  length  that 
will  better  repay  careful  reading. 

Comns  is  an  immortal  apotheosis  of  virtue,  •  While  in 
Geneva  in  1639,  Milton  was  asked  for  his  autograph  and 
an  expression  of  sentiment.  He  chose  the  closing  lines  of 

Comus :  — 

"...  if  Virtue  feeble  were, 

Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her." 

Lycidas,  one  of  the  world's  great  elegies,  was  written  on 
the  death  of  Milton's  classmate,  Edward  King.  Mark 


JOHN   MILTON  2OI 

Pattison,  one  of  Milton's  biographers,  says  :  "  In  Lycidas 
we  have  reached  the  high-water  mark  of  English  poesy 
and  of  Milton's  own  production."  The  193  lines  in  this 
poem  are  not  to  be  read  lightly,  but  to  be  studied.  The 
more  one  studies  them,  the  more  will  their  greatness 
become  evident.  That  person  is  to  be  pitied  who  has  no 
sympathetic  appreciation  for  a  passage  like  this  :  — 

"  Ye  valleys  low,  where  the  mild  whispers  use 
Of  shades,  and  wanton  winds,  and  gushing  brooks, 
On  whose  fresh  lap  the  swart  star  sparely  looks, 
Throw  hither  all  your  quaint  enamelled  eyes, 
That  on  the  green  turf  suck  the  honeyed  showers, 
And  purple  all  the  ground  with  vernal  flowers. 
Bring  the  rathe  primrose  that  forsaken  dies, 
The  tufted  crow-toe,  and  pale  jessamine, 
The  white  pink,  and  the  pansy  freaked  with  jet, 
The  glowing  violet, 

The  musk-rose,  and  the  well-attired  woodbine, 
With  cowslips  wan  that  hang  the  pensive  head, 
And  every  flower  that  sad  embroidery  wears  ; 
Bid  amaranthus  all  his  beauty  shed, 
And  daffadillies  fill  their  cups  with  tears, 
To  strew  the  laureate  hearse  where  Lycid  lies." 

Paradise  Lost ;  Its  Inception  and  Dramatic  Plan.  —  Cam- 
bridge University  has  a  list,  written  by  Milton  before  he 
was  thirty-five,  of  about  one  hundred  possible  subjects  for 
the  great  poem  which  he  felt  it  was  his  life's  mission  to 
give  to  the  world.  He  once  thought  of  selecting  Arthur 
and  his  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  but  his  final  choice 
was  Paradise  Lost,  which  stands  first  on  this  special  list. 
There  are  in  addition  four  separate  drafts  of  the  way  in 
which  he  thought  this  subject  should  be  treated.  This 
proves  that  the  great  work  of  a  man  like  Milton  was 
planned  while  he  was  young. 


2O2 


THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 


All  four  drafts  show  that  his  early  intention  was  to 
make  the  poem  a  drama,  a  gigantic  Miracle  play.  The 
closing  of  the  theaters  and  the  prejudice  felt  against  them 
during  the  days  of  Puritan  ascendency  may  have  influenced 
Milton  to  forsake  the  dramatic  for  the  epic  form,  but  he 
seems  never  to  have  shared  the  common  prejudice  against 
the  drama  and  the  stage.  His  sonnet  on  Shakespeare 
shows  in  what  estimation  he  held  that  dramatist. 

Subject  Matter  and  Form. — About  1658,  when  Milton 
was  a  widower,  living  alone  with  his  three  daughters,  he 
began,  in  total  blindness,  to  dictate  his  Paradise  Lost, 


Painting  by  Munkacsy. 

MILTON    DICTATING    PARADISE    LOST   TO    HIS    DAUGHTERS 

sometimes  relying  on  them  but  more  often  on  any  kind 
friend  who  might  assist  him.  The  manuscript  accordingly 
shows  a  variety  of  handwriting.  The  work  was  published 


JOHN   MILTON  2O3 

in  1667,  after  some  trouble  with  a  narrow-minded  censor 
who  had  doubts  about  granting  a  license. 

The  subject  matter  can  best  be  given  in  Milton's  own 
lines  at  the  beginning  of  the  poem  :  — 

"  Of  man's  first  disobedience,  and  the  fruit 
Of  that  forbidden  tree,  whose  mortal  taste 
Brought  death  into  the  World,  and  all  our  woe, 
With  loss  of  Eden,  till  one  greater  Man 
Restore  us,  and  regain  the  blissful  seat, 
Sing,  Heavenly  Muse." 

The  poem  treats  of  Satan's  revolt  in  heaven,  of  his 
conflict  with  the  Almighty,  and  banishment  with  all  the 
rebellious  angels.  Their  new  home  in  the  land  of  fire  and 
endless  pain  is  described  with  such  a  gigantic  grasp  of  the 
imagination,  that  the  conception  has  colored  all  succeeding 
theology. 

The  action  proceeds  with  a  council  of  the  fallen  angels 
to  devise  means  for  alleviating  their  condition  and  annoy- 
ing the  Almighty.  They  decide  to  strike  him  through  his 
child,  and  they  plot  the  fall  of  man.  In  short,  Paradise 
Lost  is  an  intensely  dramatic  story  of  the  loss  of  Eden. 
The  greatest  actors  that  ever  sprang  from  a  poet's  brain 
appear  before  us  on  the  stage,  which  is  at  one  time  the 
sulphurous  pit  of  hell,  at  another  the  bright  plains  of 
heaven,  and  at  another  the  Elysium  of  our  first  parents. 

In  form  the  poem  is  an  epic  in  twelve  books,  contain- 
ing a  total  of  10,565  lines.  It  is  written  in  blank  verse  of 
wonderful  melody  and  variety. 

Paradise  Regained  and  Samson  Agonistes.  —  After  finish- 
ing Paradise  Lost,  Milton  wrote  two  more  poems,  which 
he  published  in  1671.  Paradise  Regained  is  in  great  part 
a  paraphrase  of  the  first  eleven  verses  of  the  fourth  chap- 
ter of  St.  Matthew.  The  poem  is  in  four  books  of  blank 


204  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

verse  and  contains  2070  lines.  Although  it  is  written  with 
great  art  and  finish,  Paradise  Regained  shows  a  falling  off 
in  Milton's  genius.  There  is  less  ornament  and  less  to 
arouse  human  interest. 

Samson  Agonistes  (Samson  the  Struggler)  is  a  tragedy 
containing  1758  lines,  based  on  the  sixteenth  chapter  of 
Judges.  This  poem,  modeled  after  the  Greek  drama,  is 
hampered  by  a  strict  observance  of  the  dramatic  unities. 
It  is  vastly  inferior  to  the  Paradise  Lost.  Samson  Ago- 
nistes contains  scarcely  any  of  the  glorious  imagery  of 
Milton's  earlier  poems.  It  has  been  called  "  the  most 
unadorned  poem  that  can  be  found." 

Characteristics  of  Milton  s  Poetry 

Variety  in  his  Early  Work.  —  A  line  in  Lycidas  says :  - 
"  He  touched  the  tender  stops  of  various  quills," 

and  this  may  be  said  of  Milton.  His  early  poems  show 
great  variety.  We  have  not  only  the  soul-stirring  dirge 
notes  in  Lycidas,  but  we  also  find  the  lines  of  the  most  of 
his  minor  poems  fresh  with  the  sights,  sounds,  and  odors  of 
the  country.  We  have  our  own  perception  of  the  beauties 
of  nature  quickened,  as  we  catch  sight  in  L Allegro  of 

"...  beds  of  violets  blue 
And  fresh-blown  roses  washed  in  dew," 

as  we  inhale  the  matchless  odors  from 

"  The  frolic  wind  that  breathes  the  spring," 
and  as  we  find  ourselves  listening 

"  While  the  plowman  near  at  hand 
Whistles  o'er  the  furrow'd  land, 
And  the  milkmaid  singeth  blithe, 
And  the  mower  whets  his  scythe." 


JOHN   MILTON  2O5 

Although  Milton  is  noted  for  his  seriousness  and  sub- 
limity, we  must  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  his  minor 
poems  show  great  delicacy  of  touch.  The  epilogue  of  the 
Spirit  at  the  end  of  Comus  is  an  instance  of  exquisite  airy 
fancy  passing  into  noble  imagination  at  the  close.  In 
1638  Sir  Henry  Wotton  wrote  this  intelligent  criticism  of 
Comus  to  its  author :  "I  should  much  commend  the  trag- 
ical part,  if  the  lyrical  did  not  ravish  me  with  a  certain 
Doric  delicacy  in  your  Songs  and  Odes,  whereunto  I  must 
plainly  confess  to  have  seen  yet  nothing  parallel  in  our 
language  :  Ipsa  mollifies" 

Limitations.  —  In  giving  attention  to  Milton's  variety, 
we  should  not  forget  that  his  limitations  are  apparent 
when  we  judge  him  by  Elizabethan  standards.  As  varied 
as  his  excellences  are,  his  range  is  far  narrower  than 
Shakespeare's.  Milton  has  little  sense  of  humor.  All 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  with  the  ruddy  glow  of  life, 
do  not  throng  his  pages.  We  feel  that  he  is  farther 
from  human  life  than  either  Shakespeare  or  Burns.  We 
find  that  Milton,  unlike  those  poets,  became  acquainted 
with  flowers  through  the  medium  of  a  book  before  he 
noticed  them  in  the  fields.  In  speaking  of  flowers  and 
birds,  he  sometimes  makes  those  mistakes  to  which  the 
bookish  man  is  more  prone  than  the  child  who  first  hears 
the  story  of  Nature  from  her  own  lips.  Unlike  Shakespeare 
and  Burns,  Milton  had  the  misfortune  to  spend  his  child- 
hood in  a  large  city.  Again,  while  increasing  age  seemed 
to  impose  no  limitations  on  Shakespeare's  genius,  since 
his  touch  is  as  delicate  in  The  Tempest  as  in  his  first  plays, 
Milton's  style,  on  the  other  hand,  grew  frigid  and  devoid 
of  imagery  toward  the  end  of  his  life. 

Sublimity.  —  The  most  striking  characteristic  of  Milton's 
poetry  is  sublimity,  and  this  consists,  first,  in  the  subject 


206  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

matter.  In  the  opening  lines  of  Paradise  Lost  he  speaks 
of  his  "  adventrous  song  " 

"  That  with  no  middle  flight  intends  to  soar 
Above  the  Aonian  mount,  while  it  pursues 
Things  unattempted  yet  in  prose  or  rhyme." 

Milton  succeeded  in  his  intention.  The  English  language 
has  not  another  epic  poem,  or  a  poem  of  any  other  kind, 
which  approaches  Paradise  Lost  in  sustained  sublimity. 

In  the  second  place,  we  must  note  the  sublimity  of  treat- 
ment. Milton's  own  mind  was  cast  in  a  sublime  mold. 
His  very  figures  of  rhetoric  frequently  throb  with  sub- 
limity. Thus,  the  Milky  Way  is  spoken  of  as  the  royal 
highway  to  heaven  :  — 

"A  broad  and  ample  road,  whose  dust  is  gold, 
And  pavement  stars." 

When  Death  and  Satan  meet,  Milton  wishes  the  horror 
of  the  scene  to  manifest  something  of  the  sublime. 
What  other  poet  could,  in  fewer  words,  have  conveyed 
a  stronger  impression  of  the  effect  of  the  frown  of  those 
terrible  powers? 

"  So  frowned  the  mighty  combatants,  that  Hell 
Grew  darker  at  their  frown." 

The  pictures  painted  by  Milton  show  strength  and  mag- 
nificence of  touch,  as  well  when  the  canvas  discloses  a  lurid 
sea  of  flame  that  gives 

"  No  light ;  but  rather  darkness  visible," 

as  when  Eden  with  its  atmosphere  of  a  spring  dawn  pre- 
sents her 

"  Flowers  of  all  hue,  and  without  thorn  the  rose." 


JOHN   MILTON  2O/ 

In  the  first  part  of  Paradise  Lost,  Satan  is  not  the 
crawling  fiend  that  he  becomes  later:  — 

"  His  form  had  yet  not  lost 
All  her  original  brightness,  nor  appeared 
Less  than  Archangel  ruined." 

Harmony.  —  A  pronounced  characteristic  of  Milton's 
verse  is  harmony.  Any  one  can  detect  the  exquisite 
harmony  of  such  lines  as  these  by  reading  them  aloud :  — 

"  It  was  the  winter  wild, 
While  the  heaven-born  child 
All  meanly  wrapt  in  the  rude  manger  lies. 

u  The  winds,  with  wonder  whist, 
Smoothly  the  waters  kissed, 

"  The  oracles  are  dumb  ; 
No  voice  or  hideous  hum 
Runs  through  the  arched  roof  in  words  deceiving."  1 

His  blank  verse  has  never  been  surpassed  in  harmonious 
rhythm.  Lines  like  these  show  the  melody  of  which  this 

verse  is  capable  :  — 

"  Heaven  opened  wide 
Her  ever-during  gates,  harmonious  sound 
On  golden  hinges  moving."  2 

How  the    Paradise   Lost  has   affected   Thought.  —  Few 

persons  realize  how  profoundly  this  poem  has  influenced 
men's  ideas  of  the  hereafter.  The  conception  of  hell  for 
a  long  time  current  was  influenced  by  those  pictures  which 
Milton  painted  with  darkness  for  his  canvas  and  the  light- 
ning for  his  brush.  Our  pictures  of  Eden  and  of  heaven 
have  also  felt  his  touch.  Theology  has  often  looked  through 
Milton's  imagination  at  the  fall  of  the  rebel  angels  and  of 

1  Hymn  on  the  Nativity.  a  Paradise  Lost,  Book  VII.,  lines  207-9. 


208  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

man.  Huxley  says  that  the  cosmogony  which  stubbornly 
resists  the  conclusions  of  science,  is  due  rather  to  the 
account  in  Paradise  Lost  than  to  Genesis. 

Many  of  Milton's  expressions  have  become  crystallized 
in  modern  thought.  Among  such  we  may  mention  :  — 

"The  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  in  itself 
Can  make  a  Heaven  of  Hell,  a  Hell  of  Heaven, 
What  matter  where,  if  I  be  still  the  same?"  1 

"To  reign  is  worth  ambition,  though  in  Hell: 
Better  to  reign  in  Hell,  than  serve  in  Heaven."  2 

"...  Who  overcomes 
By  force  hath  overcome  but  half  his  foe."  8 

"...  Abashed  the  Devil  stood 
And  felt  how  awful  goodness  is,  and  saw 
Virtue  in  her  shape  how  lovely."  * 

The  Embodiment  of  High  Ideals.  —  No  other  poet  has 
embodied  in  his  verse  higher  ideals  than  Milton.  He 
thought  that  he  owed  the  world  something  which  he  was 
determined  to  repay.  When  twenty-three,  he  wrote  that  he 
intended  to  use  his  talents 

"  As  ever  in  my  great  Taskmaster's  eye."  6 

Milton's  poetry  is  not  universally  popular.  He  delib- 
erately selected  his  audience.  These  lines  from  Comus 
show  to  whom  he  would  speak  :  — 

"  Yet  some  there  be  that  by  due  steps  aspire 
To  lay  their  just  hands  on  that  golden  key 
That  opes  the  palace  of  eternity. 
To  such  my  errand  is." 

1  Paradise  Lost,  Book  I.,  line  254.  8  Ibid.,  1.  649. 

2  Ibid.,  1.  262.  *  Ibid.,  Book  IV.,  1.  846. 
6  Sonnet :   On  His  Having  Arrived  at  the  Age  of  Twenty-three. 


SUMMARY  209 

He  kept  his  promise  of  writing  something  which  the 
world  would  not  willingly  let  die.  That  something  still 
speaks  for  liberty  and  for  nobility  of  soul.  No  man  with 
his  thoughts  on  the  ground  can  appreciate  Milton.  His 
ideals  react  on  us  and  raise  us  higher  than  we  were.  To 
him  we  may  say  with  Wordsworth  :  — 

"  Thy  soul  was  like  a  star  and  dwelt  apart ; 
Thou  hadst  a  voice  whose  sound  was  like  the  sea, 
Pure  as  the  naked  heavens,  majestic,  free."  l 

SUMMARY 

The  Puritan  age  was  one  of  conflict  in  religious  and  polit- 
ical ideals.  The  color  of  the  Elizabethan  dawn  had  faded 
into  leaden  skies.  Men  realized  that  neither  lands  beyond 
the  sea  nor  the  New  Learning  could  fill  the  aspirations  of 
the  soul.  The  Puritans  turned  their  attention  to  the  life 
beyond.  They  felt  that  their  ideals  of  this  life  should 
be  such  as  their  great  Taskmaster  would  approve.  Life 
became  a  ceaseless  battle  of  the  right  against  the  wrong. 
Hence  much  of  the  literature  in  both  poetry  and  prose  is 
polemical.  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  is  an  epic  of  war 
between  good  and  evil. 

The  prose  deals  with  a  variety  of  subjects.  There  are 
argumentative,  philosophical,  historical,  biographical,  and 
theological  prose  works,  but  only  the  fine  presentation  of 
nature  and  life  in  The  Complete  Angler  interests  the  general 
reader  of  to-day,  although  the  grandeur  of  Milton's  Areopa- 
gitica,  the  humor  of  Thomas  Fuller,  and  the  imagery  and 
variety  of  Jeremy  Taylor  deserve  more  readers. 

The  drama  shows  a  steady  decline  from  the  summit  of 
Elizabethan  greatness.  Webster  and  Ford  manifest  great 

1  Milton  :  A  Sonnet. 


2IO  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

power  in  dealing  with  horrible  subjects,  and  the  plays  of 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher  are  sprinkled  with  beautiful  pas- 
sages, but  the  dramatists  of  this  age  lack  universality. 
Their  plays  are  often  coarse,  and  fail  to  show  orderly 
development  and  the  natural  unfolding  of  moral  law. 

John  Milton  is  the  only  great  poet  of  this  period.  In 
sublimity  of  subject  matter  and  cast  of  mind,  in  nobility 
of  ideals,  in  expressing  the  conflict  between  good  and 
evil,  he  is  the  fittest  representative  of  the  Puritan  spirit 
in  literature.  Even  in  his  minor  poems,  we  see  the  young 
Puritan  pointing  to 

"...  the  crown  that  Virtue  gives 
After  this  mortal  change,  to  her  true  servants."  1 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  difference  in  ideals  between 
this  and  the  preceding  age,  it  is  instructive  to  compare 
the  aim  of  the  heroes  of  Marlowe's  Faustus  and  Tambur- 
laine  with  that  which  animates  Milton's  Comus.  While 
Milton  manifests  much  of  the  greatness  of  the  Elizabethan 
age,  he  lacks  its  universality  and  close  association  with  life. 

With  the  exception  of  Milton,  the  poets  display  little 
creative  originality.  They  are  mainly  imitators  of  John 
Donne,  Ben  Jonson,  and  Edmund  Spenser.  The  minor 
poets  of  this  period  exhibit  few  traces  of  Shakespearean 
influence. 


Gardiner,2  pp.  481-577;  Green,  Chap.  VIII.;  Underwood-Guest, 
pp.  442-476 ;  Guerber,  pp.  252-275  ;  Wakeling's  King  and  Parliament 
(Oxford  Manuals),  pp.  1-68;  Frederic  Harrison's  Oliver  Cromwell 
(228  pp.,  50  cents)  ;  Traill,  IV.,  1-345. 

1  Comus,  1.  9.  *  For  full  titles,  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 


READING   REFERENCES  211 


LITERARY 

Prose.  —  The  student  will  obtain  a  fair  idea  of  the  prose  of  this  age 
by  reading  Milton's  Areopagitica  (Morley's  National  Library,  No.  123, 
10  cents  ;  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  471-475)  ;  the 
selections  from  Thomas  Hobbes,  in  Craik,  II.,  214-221  ;  from  Thomas 
Fuller,  in  Craik,  II.,  377-387;  from  Jeremy  Taylor,  in  Craik,  II.,  529- 
542  ;  and  from  Izaak  Walton,  in  Craik,  II.,  343-349.  The  student  who 
has  the  time  will  wish  to  read  The  Complete  Angler  entire  (Cassell's 
National  Library,  No.  4,  10  cents). 

Compare  (a)  the  sentences,  (b)  general  style,  and  (c)  worth  of  the 
subject  matter  of  these  authors  ;  then,  to  note  the  development  of  Eng- 
lish prose,  in  treatment  of  subject  as  well  as  in  form,  compare  these 
works  with  those  of  (i)  Wycliffe  and  Mandeville  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  (2)  of  Malory  in  the  fifteenth,  and  (3)  of  Tyndale,  Lyly, 
Sidney,  Hooker,  and  Bacon  (e.g.  essay  Of  Study,  1597),  in  the  sixteenth. 

The  Caroline  Poets.  —  Specimens  of  the  best  work  'of  Carew,  Suck- 
ling, Lovelace,  and  Herrick  may  be  found  in  Ward's  English  Poets, 
Vol.  II.,  pp.  115-187,  also  in  Cavalier  Poets  (Maynard,  Merrill,  &  Co.'s 
English  Classics,  12  cents).  The  influence  of  John  Donne,  Ward,  I., 
558-566,  and  of  Ben  Jonson,  Ward,  II.,  8-23,  should  be  noted. 

John  Milton.  —  L  ''Allegro,  II  Penseroso,  Comus,  Lycidas  (American 
Book  Co.'s  Eclectic  English  Classics,  20  cents),  and  Paradise  Lost, 
Books  I.  and  II.  (same  series)  should  be  read. 

Which  is  the  greatest  of  his  minor  poems?  Why?  Is  the  keynote 
of  Comus  in  accord  with  Puritan  ideals?  Are  there  qualities  in  Lycidas 
which  justify  calling  it  "  the  high-water  mark  "  of  English  lyrical  poetry? 
Which  poem  has  most  powerfully  affected  theological  thought?  Which 
do  you  think  is  oftenest  read  to-day?  Why?  What  is  the  most  strik- 
ing characteristic  of  his  poetry?  Contrast  Milton's  greatness,  limita- 
tions, and  ideals  of  life,  with  Shakespeare's. 


WORKS   FOR  CONSULTATION   AND   FURTHER   STUDY 
(OPTIONAL) 

Gardiner's  The  First  Two  Stuarts  and  the  Puritan  Revolution. 
Masson's  The  Life  of  John  Milton,  Narrated  in  Connection  with  the 
Political,  Ecclesiastical,  and  Literary  History  of  his  Time  (6  vols.). 


212  THE  PURITAN  AGE,  1603-1660 

Chapter  VI.  of  Vol.  I.  gives  a  valuable  survey  of  British  literature  when 
Milton  was  a  young  man. 

Masterman's  The  Age  of  Milton  gives  in  254  pages  a  survey  of  all 
the  literature  of  the  age. 

General  work's  on  literature  by  Taine,  Gosse,  Saintsbury,  and  Phil- 
lips. Saintsbury's  A  History  of  Elizabethan  Literature  comes  down 
to  1660. 

Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  24-379. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  II. 

Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature,  pp.  261-295. 

Pattison's  Life  of  Milton. 

Garnett's  Life  of  Milton. 

Stopford  Brooke's  Milton. 

Masson's  Poetical  Works  of  John  Milton,  3  vols.,  contains  excellent 
introductions  and  notes,  and  is  the  standard  edition. 

Addison's  criticisms  on  Milton,  beginning  in  number  267  of  The. 
Spectator,  are  suggestive. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Milton. 

The  Idealism  of  Milton,  pp.  454-473,  in  Dowden's  Transcripts  and 
Studies. 
.    Scherer's  Milton  and  Paradise  Lost,  in  Essays  on  English  Literature. 

Arnold's  Essays  in  Criticism,  Second  Series. 

For  accounts  of  life  and  works  of  minor  authors,  consult  Dictionary 
of  National  Biography. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  AGE  OF  THE   RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

Change  in  Morals.  — With  the  Restoration,  a  tremendous 
reaction  against  the  Puritanic  view  of  life  set  in.  Reaction 
always  results  when  excessive  restraint  in  any  direction 
is  removed.  The.  court  of  Charles  II.  was  the  vilest 
ever  known  in  England.  Any  one  who  insisted  on  purity 
of  life  was  mocked  and  called  a  hypocrite.  The  Puritan 
virtues  were  laughed  to  scorn  by  the 
ribald  courtiers  who  attended  Charles 
II.  In  1663  Samuel  Butler  published 
a  famous  satire,  entitled  Hudibras. 
Its  object  was  to  ridicule  every- 
thing that  savored  of  Puritanism. 
This  satire  became  extremely  pop- 
ular in  court  circles,  and  it  was 
the  favorite  reading  of  Charles 
II. 

The  change  in  morals  is  re- 
flected in  no  branch  of  literature 
more  than  in  the  drama  of  this 

age.  The  popular  plays  show  almost  no  respect  for  the 
great  ethical  laws  of  life.  The  dramatists  seemed  unable 
to  grasp  the  truth  presented  with  such  emphasis  in  Shake- 
speare's plays,  that  human  society  rests  on  moral  founda- 
tions, on  the  virtues  of  the  home,  on  fidelity,  kindness, 
sympathy.  The  indecent  drama  of  the  Restoration,  in 
endeavoring  to  paint  life  out  of  harmony  with  these  con- 


SAMUEL    BUTLER 


HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  14 


213 


214  THE  AGE  OF  THE  RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

ditions,  has  fortunately  paid  the  penalty  by  remaining  for 
the  most  part  unread  to-day. 

Change  in  the  Subject  Matter  of  Literature.  —  The 
Elizabethan  age  impartially  held  the  mirror  up  to  every 
type  of  human  emotion.  The  writers  of  the  Restoration, 
as  a  class,  avoided  any  subject  which  demanded  a  por- 
trayal of  deep  and  noble  feeling.  In  this  age,  we  catch 
no  glimpse  of  a  Lear  bending  over  a  dead  Cordelia,  or  of 
the  heroic  characters  of  a  Paradise  Lost. 

The  popular  subjects  were  those  which  appealed  to  cold 
intellect,  and  these  were,  for  the  most  part,  satirical,  didac- 
tic, and  argumentative.  John  Dryden,  the  ruling  poet  of 
the  Restoration,  affords  a  typical  instance  of  one  who 
usually  chose  such  subjects.  John  Locke  (1632-1704),  a 
great  prose  writer  of  this  age,  shows  in  the  very  title  of 
his  most  famous  work,  The  Conduct  of  t)ie  Understanding, 
what  he  preferred  to  discuss.  That  book  opens  with  the 
statement :  "  The  last  resort  a  man  has  recourse  to  in  the 
conduct  of  himself  is  his  understanding."  This  declara- 
tion embodies  a  pronounced  tendency  of  the  age.  It  could 
not  realize  that  the  world  of  feeling  is  no  less  real  than 
that  of  the  understanding. 

Neglect  of  Nature.  —  A  striking  way  in  which  the 
change  of  subject  matter  manifested  itself  was  hi  the 
neglect  of  references  to  nature.  Shakespeare  says :  — 

"  I  know  a  bank  where  the  wild  thyme  blows, 
Where  oxlips  and  the  nodding  violet  grows."1 

In  his  pages  we  catch  the  gleam  of  the  glowworm's 
eyes,  we  see  the  summer's  velvet  buds,  we  inhale  the 
odor  of  the  musk  rose  and  the  eglantine.  "  Everything 
that  pretty  is  "  in  the  world  of  nature  greets  our  senses 

1  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  II.,  I. 


CHANGE   IN   FOREIGN   INFLUENCE  215 

in  his  plays.    With  all  his  bookishness,  Milton  takes  us  out 

of  doors 

"...  early,  ere  the  odorous  breath  of  morn 

Awakes  the  slumbering  leaves,"  * 

to  visit  inspiring  scenery. 

The  poets  of  the  Restoration,  on  the  other  hand, 
pay  but  little  attention  to  the  charms  of  nature.  Words- 
worth says  of  Dryden :  "  There  is  not  a  single  image  from 
nature  in  the  whole  of  his  works."  Poetry  which  affects 
a  contempt  for  nature  is  lacking  in  an  important  element 
of  greatness. 

The  Study  of  Science.  —  One  of  the  best  characteristics 
of  the  period  was  its  love  of  scientific  investigation.  An 
age  devoted  to  intellectual  activity  must  seek  various  out- 
lets. Some  of  the  most  important  of  these  were  found  in 
scientific  fields.  The  Royal  Society  was  founded  in  1662 
to  investigate  natural  phenomena  and  to  penetrate  into  the 
hidden  mysteries  of  philosophy  and  life. 

When  we  remember  that  Locke  was  paid  for  his  essay, 
TJie  Conduct  of  tJie  Understanding,  a  volume  of  only 
about  a  hundred  pages,  three  times  as  much  as  Milton 
received  for  the  Paradise  Lost,  we  may  realize  that  the 
taste  of  the  age  preferred  the  productions  of  cold  intellect 
to  the  noble  creations  of  thought  and  imagination,  in  con- 
junction with  feeling. 

Change  in  Foreign  Influence.  —  Of  all  foreign  influences 
from  the  beginning  of  the  Renaissance  to  the  Restora- 
tion, the  literature  of  Italy  had  been  the  most  important. 
French  influence  now  gained  the  ascendency. 

There  were  several  reasons  for  this  change,  (i)  France 
under  the  great  Louis  XIV.  was  increasing  her  polit- 
ical importance.  (2)  She  now  had  among  her  writers 

1  Arcades. 


2l6  THE  AGE  OF  THE   RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

men  who  were  by  force  of  genius  fitted  to  exert  wide 
influence.  Among  such,  we  may  instance  Moliere  (1622- 
1673),  who  stands  next  to  Shakespeare  in  dramatic  power. 
(3)  Charles  II.  and  many  Cavaliers  had  passed  the  time 
of  their  exile  in  France.  They  became  familiar  with 
French  literature,  and  when  they  returned  to  England  in 
1660,  their  taste  had  been  influenced  by  French  models. 

More  Attention  paid  to  Form  of  Expression.  —  A  great 
genius  like  Shakespeare,  by  the  worth  of  what  he  says, 
more  than  atones  for  any  deficiencies  of  form.  In  the 
Puritan  age  the  metaphysical  poets  had  nothing  original 
to  utter,  but  even  what  they  copied  often  lacks  correctness 
of  form.  Their  shallow  thoughts  are  frequently  stated 
obscurely ;  their  figurative  language  is  often  extravagant 
or  absurd.  The  readers  of  the  Restoration  demanded  that 
if  a  writer  had  nothing  original  to  offer,  his  second-hand 
thoughts  should  at  least  be  presented  in  artistic  form,  and 
that  obscurity  should  no  longer  be  employed  as  a  cloak 
to  cover  shallowness. 

It  is  well  for  the  student  to  be  reminded  frequently  that 
influences  are  often  operative  for  a  long  while  before  their 
results  are  widely  felt.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century, 
Edmund  Waller  (1606-1687),  a  Poet  very  popular  after 
the  Restoration,  but  little  read  to-day,  had  put  in  practice 
the  French  idea  that  too  much  attention  cannot  be  paid 
to  the  formal  excellence  of  poetry.  Before  1630  he  had  used 
the  same  French  rhyming  couplets  which  Dryden,  and 
especially  Pope  (see  p.  234),  brought  to  a  high  degree  of 
formal  perfection  in  English  verse.  The  following  couplet, 
the  best  that  Waller  ever  wrote,  will  show  its  form :  — 

"  The  soul's  dark  cottage,  battered  and  decayed, 
Lets  in  new  light  through  chinks  that  time  hath  made." 1 

1  Old  Age  and  Death,  from  Divine  Poems, 


JOHN   DRYDEN 


2I7 


Waller,  however,  found  few  pupils  until  the  Restoration 
opened  wide  the  door  to  French  influence,  which  in  this 
age  and  the  next  was  potent  in  causing  writers  to  pay 
more  attention  to  polished  forms  of  expression.  French 
critics  did  not  object  to  a  commonplace  thought,  if  the 
style  was  clear,  incisive,  and  attractive. 

JOHN    DRYDEN,  1631-1700 

Life.  — John  Dry  den  was  born  in  1631  in  the  small  vil- 
lage of  Aldwinkle,  in  the  northern  part  of  Northampton- 
shire. Few  interesting  facts  concerning  his  life  have  come 
down  to  us.  His  father  was  a  baronet;  his  mother,  the 
daughter  of  a  rector.  Young  Dryden  graduated  from 
Cambridge  in  1654. 


From  a  print. 


BIRTHPLACE    OF    DRYDEN 


During  his  entire  life,  Dryden  was  a  professional  liter- 
ary man,  and  with  his  pen  he  made  the  principal  part  of  his 
living.  This  necessity  often  forced  him  against  his  own 


218  THE  AGE  OF  THE  RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

better  judgment  to  cater  to  the  perverted  taste  of  the  Res- 
toration. The  theaters  were  opened  soon  after  the  return 
of  Charles  II.,  and  Dry  den  found  that  plays  had  more 
market  value  than  any  other  kind  of  literature.  He  agreed 
to  furnish  three  plays  a  year  for  the  King's  actors,  but  was 
unable  to  produce  that  number.  For  fifteen  years  in  the 
prime  of  his  life,  Dryden  did  little  but  write  plays,  the 
majority  of  which  are  seldom  read  to-day. 

At  the  age  of  fifty,  he  showed  the  world  where  his 
genius  lay,  by  writing  the  greatest  political  satire  in  the 
language.  During  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life,  he 
produced  but  few  plays.  His  greatest  satires,  didactic 
poems,  and  lyrics  belong  to  this  period.  In  his  last  years 
he  wrote  a  spirited  translation  of  Virgil,  and  retold  in  his 
own  inimitable  way  various  stories  from  Chaucer  and  Boc- 
caccio. Dryden  died  in  1 700  and  was  buried  in  Westmin- 
ster Abbey  beside  Chaucer. 

It  is  difficult  to  speak  positively  of  Dryden's  character. 
He  wrote  a  poem  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  Cromwell, 
and  a  little  later  another  welcoming  Charles  II.  He  ar- 
gued in  stirring  verse  in  favor  of  the  Episcopal  religion, 
when  that  was  the  faith  of  the  court.  James  II.  was  a 
Roman  Catholic,  and,  after  his  accession,  Dryden  wrote 
another  poem  to  prove  the  Catholic  Church  the  only  true 
one.  He  had  been  appointed  poet  laureate  in  1670,  but 
the  Revolution  of  1688,  which  drove  James  from  the  throne, 
caused  Dryden  to  lose  the  laureateship.  He  would  neither 
take  the  oath  of  fealty  to  the  new  government  nor  change 
his  religion.  In  spite  of  adversity  and  the  loss  of  an  in- 
come almost  sufficient  to  support  him,  he  remained  a  Cath- 
olic for  the  rest  of  his  life  and  reared  his  sons  in  that  faith. 

He  seems  to  have  been  of  a  forgiving  disposition,  and 
ready  to  acknowledge  his  own  faults.  He  admitted  that 


JOHN   DRYDEN 


219 


his  plays  were  disfigured  with  coarseness.  He  was  very 
kind  to  young  writers  and  willing  to  help  them  with  their 
work.  In  his  chair  at  Will's  Coffee  House,  discoursing  to 
the  wits  of  the  Restoration  about  matters  of  literary  art, 
he  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  figures  of  the  age. 

His  Prose.  —  Although  to  the  majority  of  people  Dryden 
is  known  only  as  a  poet,  his  influence  on  prose  has  been 
so  far-reaching  as  to  entitle  him  to  be  called  one  of  the 
founders  of  modern  prose  style. 

The  shortening  of  sentences  has  been  a  striking  feature 
in  the  development  of  modern  English  prose.  Edmund 


220  THE  AGE  OF  THE   RESTORATION,   1660-1700 

Spenser  averages  about  fifty  words  to  each  of  his  prose 
sentences ;  Richard  Hooker,  about  forty-one.  One  of  the 
most  striking  sentences  in  Milton's  Areopagitica  contains 
ninety-five  words,  although  he  crowds  over  three  hundred 
words  into  some  of  his  long  sentences.  The  sentences  in 
some  of  Dryden's  pages  average  only  twenty-five  words 
in  length.  We  turn  to  Macaulay,  one  of  the  most  finished 
masters  of  modern  prose,  and  find  that  his  sentences 
average  twenty-two  words.  Dryden  also  helped  to  free 
English  prose  from  the  inversions,  involutions,  and  paren- 
thetical intricacies  of  earlier  times. 

Dryden's  prose  deals  chiefly  with  literary  criticism. 
The  most  of  his  prose  is  to  be  found  in  the  prefaces  to 
his  plays  and  poems.  His  most  important  separate  prose 
composition  is  his  Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy,  a  work  which 
should  be  read  by  all  who  wish  to  know  some  of  the 
foundation  principles  of  criticism. 

Satiric  Poetry.  —  No  English  writer  has  surpassed 
Dryden  in  satiric  verse.  His  greatest  satire  is  Absalom 
and  Achitophel,  in  which,  under  the  guise  of  Old  Testa- 
ment characters,  he  satirizes  the  leading  spirits  of  the  Prot- 
estant opposition  to  the  succession  of  James,  the  brother 
of  Charles  II.,  to  the  English  throne.  Dryden  thus  satirizes 
Achitophel,  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury :  — 

"  Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied, 
And  thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide, 
Else,  why  should  he,  with  wealth  and  honor  blest, 
Refuse  his  age  the  needful  hours  of  rest? 
Punish  a  body  which  he  could  not  please, 
Bankrupt  of  life,  yet  prodigal  of  ease? 
And  all  to  leave  what  with  his  toil  he  won 
To  that  unfeathered  two-legged  thing,  a  son. 

In  friendship  false,  implacable  in  hate, 
Resolved  to  ruin  or  to  rule  the  state." 


JOHN   DRYDEN  221 

Zimri,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  is  immortalized  thus :  — 

"  Stiff  in  opinions,  always  in  the  wrong, 
Was  everything  by  starts,  and  nothing  long." 

Mac  Flecknoe  is  another  satire  of  almost  as  great  merit, 
directed  against  a  certain  Whig  poet  by  the  name  of  Shad- 
well.  He  would  have  been  seldom  mentioned  in  later  times, 
had  it  not  been  for  two  of  Dryden's  lines  :  — 

"  The  rest  to  some  faint  meaning  make  pretence, 
But  Shadwell  never  deviates  into  sense." 

All  for  Love,  one  of  Dryden's  greatest  plays,  shows  the 
delicate  keenness  of  his  satire  in  characterizing  the  cold- 
blooded Augustus  Caesar,  or  Octavius,  as  he  is  there  called. 
Antony  has  sent  a  challenge  to  Octavius,  who  replies  that 
he  has  more  ways  than  one  to  die.  Antony  rejoins  :  — 

"  He  has  more  ways  than  one ; 

But  he  would  choose  them  all  before  that  one. 
Ventidius.   He  first  would  choose  an  ague  or  a  fever. 
Antony.       No  ;  it  must  be  an  ague,  not  a  fever; 

He  has  not  warmth  enough  to  die  by  that." 

Dryden  could  make  his  satire  as  direct  and  blasting  as  a 
thunderbolt.  He  thus  describes  his  publisher:  — 

"  With  leering  looks,  bull-faced,  and  freckled  fair, 
With  two  left  legs,  and  Judas-colored  hair, 
And  frowsy  pores  that  taint  the  ambient  air." 

Argumentative  or  Didactic  Verse.  —  Dryden  is  a  master 
in  arguing  in  poetry.  He  was  not  a  whit  hampered  by  the 
restrictions  of  verse.  They  were  rather  an  advantage  to 
him,  for  in  poetry  he  could  make  more  telling  arguments 
in  briefer  compass  than  in  prose.  The  best  two  examples 
of  his  power  of  arguing  in  verse  are  Religio  Laid,  written 


222  THE  AGE  OF  THE  RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

in  1682,  to  uphold  the  Episcopal  religion,  and  The  Hind 
and  the  Panther,  composed  in  1687,  to  vindicate  the  Catho- 
lic Church.  Verse  of  this  order  is  called  didactic,  because 
it  endeavors  to  teach  or  to  explain  something.  The  age 
of  the  Restoration  delighted  in  such  exercises  of  the  intel- 
lect vastly  more  than  in  flights  of  fancy  or  imagination. 

Lyrical  Verse.  —  While  the  most  of  Dryden's  best  poetry 
is  either  satiric  or  didactic,  he  wrote  three  fine  lyrical 
poems:  Alexander's  Feast,  A  Song  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day, 
and  An  Ode  to  Mrs.  Anne  Killigrew.  All  are  distinguished 
by  remarkable  beauty  and  energy  of  expression.  Alexan- 
der's Feast  is  the  most  widely  read  of  Dryden's  poems. 
The  opening  lines  of  the  Ode  to  Mrs.  Killigrew  seem 
almost  Miltonic  in  their  conception,  and  they  show  his 
power  in  the  field  of  lyrical  poetry.  Mistress  Killigrew 
was  a  young  lady  of  rare  accomplishments  in  both  poetry 
and  painting.  She  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  and 
Dryden  thus  begins  her  memorial  ode :  — 

"  Thou  youngest  virgin  daughter  of  the  skies, 
Made  in  the  last  promotion  of  the  blest ; 
Whose  palms,  new  plucked  from  Paradise, 
In  spreading  branches  more  sublimely  rise, 
Rich  with  immortal  green  above  the  rest : 

Thou  wilt  have  time  enough  for  hymns  divine, 
Since  Heaven's  eternal  year  is  thine." 

Some  of  his  plays  have  songs  and  speeches  instinct  with 
lyrical  force.  The  following  famous  lines  on  the  worth  of 
existence  are  taken  from  his  tragedy  of  Aurengzebe :  — 

"  When  I  consider'd  life,  'tis  all  a  cheat, 
Yet,  fool'd  with  hope,  men  favor  the  deceit, 
Trust  on,  and  think  to-morrow  will  repay : 
To-morrow's  falser  than  the  former  day, 


JOHN   BUN  VAN  223 

Lies  worse ;  and  while  it  says,  we  shall  be  blest, 
With  some  new  joys,  cuts  off  what  we  possest. 
Strange  cozenage !  none  would  live  past  years  again ; 
Yet  all  hope  pleasure  in  what  remain. 
And,  from  the  dregs  of  life,  think  to  receive 
What  the  first  sprightly  running  could  not  give. 
I'm  tir'd  with  waiting  for  this  chemic  gold, 
Which  fools  us  young  and  beggars  us  when  old." 

General  Characteristics.  —  In  point  of  time,  Dry  den  is  the 
first  great  poet  of  the  school  of  literary  artists.  His  verse 
does  not  tolerate  the  un primed  irregularities  and  exaggera- 
tions of  many  former  English  poets.  His  command  over 
language  is  remarkable.  He  uses  words  almost  as  he  chooses, 
but  he  does  not  invest  them  with  the  warm  glow  of  feeling. 
He  is,  however,  something  more  than  a  great  word  artist. 
Many  of  his  ideas  bear  the  stamp  of  marked  originality. 

In  the  field  of  satiric  and  didactic  poetry,  he  is  a  master. 
The  intellectual,  not  the  emotional,  side  of  man's  nature 
appeals  strongly  to  him.  He  heeds  not  the  song  of  the 
bird,  the  color  of  the  rose,  or  the  clouds  of  evening. 

Although  more  celebrated  for  his  poetry  than  for  his 
prose,  he  is  the  earliest  of  the  great  modern  prose  stylists 
and  he  displays  high  critical  ability. 

JOHN    BUNYAN,    1628-1688 

Life. — The  Bedfordshire  village  of  Elstow  saw  in  1628 
the  birth  of  one  who  in  his  own  peculiar  field  of  literature 
was  to  lead  the  world.  The  father,  Thomas  Bunyan,  was 
a  brazier,  a  mender  of  pots  and  pans,  and  he  reared  his 
son  John  to  the  same  trade.  In  his  autobiography,  John 
Bunyan  says  that  his  father's  house  was  of  "that  rank 
that  is  meanest  and  most  despised  of  all  the  families  in 
the  land." 


224 


THE   AGE  OF  THE   RESTORATION,  1660-1700 


The  boy  went  to  school  for  only  a  short  time  and  soon 
forgot  what  little  he  had  learned.  The  father,  by  marry- 
ing a  second  time  within  a  year  after  his  wife's  death, 
wounded  the  feelings  of  his  sixteen  year  old  son  sufficiently 
to  cause  him  to  enlist  as  a  soldier  in  the  civil  war.  At 
about  the  age  of  twenty,  he  married,  when  neither  he  nor 
his  wife  had  so  much  as  a  dish  or  a  spoon. 

Bunyan  tells  us  that  in  his  youth  he  was  very  wicked, 
and  he  would  probably  have  been  so  regarded  from  the 
point  of  view  of  a  strict  Puritan.  His  worst  offenses  seem 


JOHN   BUNYAN  22$ 

to  have  been  dancing  on  the  village  green,  playing  hockey 
on  Sundays,  ringing  bells  to  rouse  the  neighborhood,  and 
swearing.  When  he  repented,  his  vivid  imagination  made 
him  think  that  he  had  committed  the  unpardonable  sin. 
In  the  terror  which  he  felt  at  the  prospect  of  the  loss 
of  his  soul,  he  passed  through  much  of  the  experience 
which  enabled  him  to  write  the  Pilgrim's  Progress. 

Bunyan  became  a  preacher  of  God's  word.  Under  trees, 
in  barns,  on  the  village  green,  wherever  people  resorted, 
he  told  them  the  story  of  salvation.  Within  six  months 
after  the  Restoration,  he  was  arrested  for  preaching  with- 
out Episcopal  sanction.  The  officers  took  him  away  from 
his  little  blind  daughter.  The  roisterers  of  the  Restoration 
thought  a  brazier  was  too  coarse  to  have  feelings,  but  he 
dropped  tears  on  the  paper  when  he  wrote  of  "  the  many 
hardships,  miseries,  and  wants  that  my  poor  family  were 
like  to  meet  with,  should  I  be  taken  from  them,  especially 
my  poor  blind  child,  who  lay  nearer  to  my  heart  than  all 
besides.  Oh,  the  thoughts  of  the  hardship  my  poor  blind 
one  might  undergo,  would  break  my  heart  to 
pieces."  In  spite  of  his  dependent  family  and 
the  natural  right  of  the  freedom  of  speech, 
Bunyan  was  thrust  into  Bedford  jail  and  kept 
a  prisoner  for  nearly 
twelve  years. 
Had  it  not 
been  for  his 
imprisonment 
in  this  "squalid 

J  »         r  U'     1-      1-  BEDFORD    BRIDGE,   SHOWING 

den,     of  which  he  GATES  AND  JA1L 

speaks  in  the  Pilgrim's 

Progress,    we    should    probably   be  without  that    famous 

work.     Part  of  it,  at  least,  was  written  in  the  jail. 


226  THE  AGE  OF  THE   RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

In  1672,  as  a  step  toward  restoring  the  Catholic  reli- 
gion, Charles  II.  suspended  all  penal  statutes  against  the 
dissenting  clergy,  and  Bunyan  was  released  from  jail. 

After  his  release,  he  settled  down  to  his  life's  work  of 
spreading  the  Gospel  by  both  pen  and  tongue.  He  some- 
times visited  London  to  preach,  and  it  was  not  uncommon 
for  twelve  hundred  persons  to  come  to  hear  him  at  seven 
o'clock  in  the  morning  of  a  week  day  in  winter. 

The  immediate  cause  of  his  death  was  a  cold  caught  by 
riding  in  the  rain,  on  his  way  to  try  to  reconcile  a  father 
and  son.  In  1688  Bunyan  died  as  he  uttered  these  words : 
"  Take  me,  for  I  come  to  Thee." 

His  life  and  works  are  a  necessary  supplement  to  an 
account  of  the  Restoration  period,  for  they  show  how  one- 
sided an  opinion  of  English  life  and  literature  might  be 
formed  from  a  study  of  the  dissolute  court  alone.  All  the 
moral  greatness  of  the  Commonwealth  period  was  not 
obliterated  in  a  day.  Men  like  John  Bunyan  still  lived  to 
exert  a  powerful  influence  over  English  life  and  thought. 

His  Work.  —  Bunyan  achieved  the  distinction  of  writing 
the  greatest  of  all  allegories,  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  This 
is  the  story  of  Christian's  journey  through  this  life,  the 
story  of  meeting  Mr.  Worldly  Wiseman,  of  the  straight 
gate  and  the  narrow  path,  of  the  Delectable  Mountains  of 
Youth,  of  the  valley  of  Humiliation,  of  the  encounter  with 
Apollyon,  of  the  wares  of  Vanity  Fair,  "  kept  all  the  year 
long,"  of  my  lord  Time-server,  of  Mr.  Anything,  of  im- 
prisonment in  Doubting  Castle  by  Giant  Despair,  of  the 
flowery  land  of  Beulah,  lying  beyond  the  valley  of  the 
Shadow  of  Death,  through  which  a  deep,  cold  river  runs, 
and  of  the  city  of  All  Delight  on  the  other  side.  This  story 
still  has  absorbing  interest  for  human  beings,  for  the  child 
and  the  old  man,  the  learned  and  the  ignorant. 


JOHN   BUNYAN 


227 


Bunyan  wrote  many  other  works,  but  none  of  them 
equals  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  His  Holy  War  is  a  power- 
ful allegory,  and  it  has  been  called  a  prose  Paradise  Lost. 
Bunyan  produced  a  strong  piece  of  realistic  fiction,  the 
Life  and  Death  of  Mr.  B adman.  This  shows  the  de- 
scent of  a  soul  along  the  broad  road.  The  story  is  the 
counterpart  of  his  great  masterpiece,  and  ranks  second  to 
it  in  point  of  merit. 


From  an  old  print. 


BUNYAN'S    BIRTHPLACE 


General  Characteristics.  —  Since  the  Pilgrim's  Progress 
has  been  more  widely  read  in  England  than  any  other  book 
except  the  Bible,  it  is  well  to  investigate  the  secret  of  Bun- 
yan's  power. 

In  the  first  place,  his  style  is  simple.  Secondly,  rare 
earnestness  is  coupled  with  this  simplicity.  He  had  some- 
thing to  say,  and  in  his  inmost  soul  he  felt  that  this  some- 
thing was  of  supreme  importance  for  all  time.  Only  a 


228  THE  AGE   OF  THE   RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

great  man  can  tell  such  truths  without  a  flourish  of  lan- 
guage, or  without  straining  after  effect.  At  the  most 
critical  part  of  the  journey  of  the  Pilgrims,  when  they  ap- 
proach the  river  of  death,  note  that  Bunyan  avoids  the 
tendency  to  indulge  in  fine  writing,  that  he  is  content  to 
rely  on  the  power  of  the  subject  matter,  simply  presented, 
to  make  us  feel  the  terrible  ordeal :  — 

"Now  I  further  saw  that  between  them  and  the  gate  was  a  river; 
but  there  was  no  bridge  to  go  over,  and  the  river  was  very  deep.  .  .  . 
The  pilgrims  then,  especially  Christian,  began  to  despond  in  their  mind, 
and  looked  this  way  and  that,  but  no  way  could  be  found  by  them  by 
which  they  might  escape  the  river.  .  .  .  They  then  addressed  them- 
selve.s  to  the  water,  and  entering,  Christian  began  to  sink.  .  .  .  And 
with  that,  a  great  darkness  and  horror  fell  upon  Christian,  so  that  he 
could  not  see  before  him.  .  .  . 

"  Now,  upon  the  bank  of  the  river,  on  the  other  side,  they  saw  the 
two  shining  men  again,  who  there  waited  for  them.  .  .  .  Now  you 
must  note,  that  the  city  stood  upon  a  mighty  hill ;  but  the  pilgrims 
went  up  that  hill  with  ease,  because  they  had  these  two  men  to  lead 
them  up  by  the  arms ;  they  had  likewise  left  their  mortal  garments 
behind  them  in  the  river;  for  though  they  went  in  with  them,  they 
came  out  without  them." 

Of  all  the  words  in  the  above  selection,  eighty  per  cent, 
are  monosyllables.  Few  authors  could  have  resisted  the 
tendency  to  try  to  be  impressive  at  such  a  climax.  One 
has  more  respect  for  this  world,  on  learning  that  it  has  set 
the  seal  of  its  approval  on  such  earnest  simplicity  and  neg- 
lected works  that  strive  wi'th  every  art  to  attract  attention. 

Thirdly,  Bunyan  has  a  rare  combination  of  imagination 
and  dramatic  power.  His  abstractions  become  living  per- 
sons. They  have  warmer  blood  coursing  in  their  veins  than 
many  of  the  men  and  women  in  modern  fiction.  Giant 
Despair  is  a  living  giant.  We  can  hear  the  clanking  of  the 
chains  and  the  groans  of  the  captives  in  his  dungeon.  We 


SUMMARY  229 

are  not  surprised  to  learn  that  Bunyan  imagined  that  he 
saw  and  conversed  with  these  characters.  The  Pilgrim  s 
Progress  is  a  prose  drama.  Note  the  vivid  dramatic  pres- 
entation of  the  tendency  to  evil,  which  we  all  have  at  some 
time  felt  threatening  to  wreck  our  nobler  selves :  — 

"  Then  Apollyon  straddled  quite  over  the  whole  breadth  of  the  way, 
and  said, ( I  am  void  of  fear  in  this  matter ;  prepare  thyself  to  die  ;  for 
I  swear  by  my  infernal  den  that  thou  shalt  go  no  further ;  here  will  I 
spill  thy  soul.' " 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  English  prose  more  simple, 
earnest,  strong,  imaginative,  and  dramatic  than  this. 
Bunyan's  style  felt  the  shaping  influence  of  the  Bible 
more  than  of  all  other  works  combined.  He  knew  the 
Scriptures  almost  by  heart 

SUMMARY 

The  Restoration  introduced  a  change  in  both  the  sub- 
ject matter  and  the  form  of  literature.  With  the  Eliza- 
bethans and  their  successors,  intellectual  action  was  but 
the  prelude  to  a  richness  of  emotional  life.  They  regarded 
man  as  a  being  who  could  love  and  feel  joy  and  grief. 
The  Restoration,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  at  man  chiefly 
from  the  coldly  intellectual  side.  The  masterpieces  are  for 
the  most  part  couched  in  a  satiric  and  a  didactic  vein.  The 
finest  work  of  Dryden,  the  great  representative  of  the  age, 
is  his  satiric  and  didactic  verse.  To  the  voice  of  nature 
speaking  through  the  buds  of  spring,  the  russet  leaves  of 
autumn,  or  the  song  of  bird,  the  poetry  of  the  Restora- 
tion turns  a  deaf  ear. 

France  exerted  the  predominating  foreign  literary  influ- 
ence. Increasing  attention  was  paid  to  the  manner  of 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT. —  15 


230  THE   AGE  OF  THE   RESTORATION,  1660-1700 

expressing  thought.     Literature  began  its  long  period  of 
worship  at  the  shrine  of  formal  excellence. 

In  prose  there  was  a  decided  advance.  Dryden's  prose 
might  have  been  written  by  a  modern  hand.  Few  modern 
writers  have  surpassed  Bunyan  in  simplicity,  energy,  and 
imaginative  power. 


REQUIRED   READINGS   FOR   CHAPTER  VI 
HISTORICAL 

Gardiner,1  pp.  578-671 ;  Green,  pp.  616-700;  Underwood-Guest,  pp. 
477-507;  Guerber,  pp.  275-290;  Wakeling's  King  and  Parliament, 
pp.  69-115;  Traill,  IV.,  346-511. 

LITERARY 

Prose.  —  An  idea  of  the  best  prose  of  the  age  may  be  gained  from 
the  following  works  :  — 

Bunyan's  Pilgrini's  Progress  (Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol. 
III.,  pp.  84-96),  Dryden's  critical  Essays  (Craik,  III.,  148-166,  or  No. 
161  in  Cassell's  National  Library,  10  cents),  Locke's  Conduct  of  the 
Understanding  (Craik,  III.,  180-183). 

In  what  does  the  secret  of  Bunyan's  popularity  consist  —  in  his  style, 
or  in  his  subject  matter,  or  in  both  ?  What  is  specially  noteworthy 
about  his  style?  In  what  respect  was  his  style  appreciably  affected  by 
his  familiarity  with  any  other  work?  Select  and  comment  on  some 
of  Dryden's  best  critical  dicta.  Why  is  Locke's  work  considered  a 
classic?  How  does  it  indicate  the  spirit  of  the  age?  In  what  respects 
does  the  prose  of  this  age  show  advance  ? 

Poetry.  —  Read  the  selections  from  Butler's  Hudibras,  in  Ward's 
English  Poets,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  400-408;  from  Dryden's  Alexanders  Feast 
(Ward.  II.,  478)  ;  from  Absalom  and  Achitophel  (Ward,  II..  454). 
As  a  specimen  of  Dryden's  argumentative  or  didactic  verse,  read  the 
opening  lines  of  Religio  Laid  (Cassell's  National  Library,  No.  98),  or 
the  selections  in  Ward,  II.,  463-468. 

1  For  full  titles,  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 


READING   REFERENCES  231 

What  characteristic  of  the  age  is  reflected  in  Hudibras  ?  What  are 
the  qualities  of  this  new  school  of  poetry,  of  which  Dryden  is  the 
most  famous  exponent?  What  are  his  special  excellences  and  defects? 
Compare  him  with  Shakespeare  and  Milton. 


(OPTIONAL) 

Sydney's  Social  Life  in  England  from  the  Restoration  to  the  Revolu- 
tion. 

Macaulay's  History  of  England. 

Taine's  History  of  English  Literature,  Book  III.,  Chaps.  I.,  II.,  III. 

Gosse's  History  of  Eighteenth  Century  Literature  begins  with  1660. 

Garnett's  The  Age  of  Dryden. 

Phillips's  Popular  Manual  of  English  Literature,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  375- 
434- 

Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature,  pp.  312-341. 

Saintsbury's  Life  of  Dryden. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Dryden. 

Lowell's  Essay  on  Dryden,  in  Among  My  Books. 

Dryden's  Essays  on  the  Drama,  edited  by  Strunk. 

Fowler's  Life  of  Locke. 

Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  396-496. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  1-229. 

Froude's  Life  of  Butiyan. 

Venable's  Life  of  Bunyan. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Southey^s  Edition  of  the  Pilgrim  >s  Progress. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   FIRST  FORTY  YEARS  OF  THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY, 

1700-1740 

Ideals  of  the  Age.  —  The  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  in  England  was  marked  by  the  existence  of  a  low 
moral  standard.  It  was  an  age  of  double  dealing  and 
corruption.  The  political  situation  was  partly  responsible 
for  this.  In  1688  James  II.  was  driven  from  England 
because  of  his  tyrannical  and  lawless  methods.  His 
son-in-law  and  daughter,  William  and  Mary,  succeeded 
him.  For  more  than  fifty  years  after  James  had  been 
dethroned,  he,  and  after  him  his  son  and  grandson, 
made  repeated  efforts  to  return.  Many  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  nation  tried  to  keep  the  favor  of  the  exiled 
princes  as  well  as  of  the  actual  rulers.  It  was  at  times 
impossible  to  tell  in  which  direction  the  balance  would 
turn,  hence  double  dealing  was  resorted  to  by  many  whose 
example  had  wide  influence  because  of  their  prominent 
position. 

The  age  was  dull,  unimaginative,  and  brutal.  Drunk- 
enness was  extremely  common.  Not  only  the  lower 
classes,  but  also  ministers  of  state  and  women  of  fashion 
drank  to  excess.  Bribery  was  the  rule.  The  greatest 
prime  minister  of  the  age  had  for  a  motto :  "  Every  man 
has  his  price." 

Although  hanging  was  the  penalty  for  stealing  a  few 
shillings  and  for  numerous  other  offenses,  this  punishment 

332 


LITERARY  FORM  PREFERRED  TO  MATTER  233 

seemed  to  have  little  restraining  power.  Men  and  women 
of  fashion  would  go  out  in  parties  to  see  droves  of  poor 
wretches  hanged.  For  minor  offenses,  the  culprits  were 
tied  fast  in  the  pillory  and  often  maimed  for  life  with 
stones,  bricks,  and  other  missiles.  All  ranks  of  society 
felt  the  degrading  influence  of  such  brutality.  In  this 
soil  nobility  of  soul  and  sympathy  with  one's  kind  did  not 
thrive.  The  eighteenth  century  furnished  Swift  sufficient 
suggestions  for  his  pictures  of  the  Yahoos.  Those  who 
object  to  such  pictures  are  merely  resenting  the  fact  that 
the  ideals  of  the  age  left  their  mark  on  the  literature. 
There  was  not  a  single  writer  with  Bunyan's  moral  power, 
no  Milton  calling  through  a  silver  trumpet :  — 

"  Mortals,  that  would  follow  me, 
Love  Virtue ;  she  alone  is  free."  * 

Literary  Form  preferred  to  Matter.  —  The  desire  for 
polish  and  veneer,  which  had  become  marked  during  the 
age  of  the  Restoration,  now  attained  the  greatest  intensity. 
There  was  no  poetic  masterpiece  of  true  creative  imagi- 
nation. The  age  was  in  one  sense  a  critical  one ;  that  is, 
it  was  very  particular  about  the  way  in  which  a  thing  was 
said.  The  matter  was  considered  of  far  less  importance. 

The  age  lacked  enthusiasm  and  moral  earnestness ;  it 
lacked  imaginative  comprehension  of  higher  realities.  In 
poetry  there  was  nothing  to  correspond  to  the  Shake- 
spearean conception  as  embodied  in  the  following  lines :  — 

"  The  poet's  eye,  in  a  fine  frenzy  rolling, 
Doth  glance  from  heaven  to  earth,  from  earth  to  heaven ; 
And  as  imagination  bodies  forth 
The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  poet's  pen 
Turns  them  to  shapes,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name  " '-' 

1  Comus,  line  1018.  2A  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream,  V.,  I. 


234  FROM   1700  TO  1740 

Pope  struck  the  keynote  of  the  age  when  he  said :  — 

"  True  Wit  is  Nature  to  advantage  dress'd, 
What  oft  was  thought,  but  ne'er  so  well  express'd."  l 

A  new  thought  was  not  so  much  desired  as  an  excellent 
dress  for  an  old  one. 

The  Rhyming  Couplet.  —  Almost  all  of  the  best  poetry 
of  the  age  was  written  in  lines  of  five  iambic  feet.  The 
two  adjacent  lines  rhyme,  and  they  are  called  a  couplet. 
There  is  generally  a  pause  at  the  end  of  each  line,  and 
each  couplet,  when  detached  from  the  context,  will  usually 
make  complete  sense.  Such  lines  catch  the  ear  and  they 
are  easily  retained  in  the  memory.  The  following  couplet 
from  Pope  is  an  example  :  — 

"  A  little  learning  is  a  dang'rous  thing ; 
Drink  deep,  or  taste  not  the  Pierian  spring."  2 

A  strict  adherence  to  the  rules  of  the  couplet  cramps 
both  the  reason  and  the  imagination.  Such  leading  strings 
narrow  freedom  of  movement.  The  greatest  passages  in 
Shakespeare  and  Milton  do  not  rhyme,  and  there  is  fre- 
quently no  pause  in  the  sense  at  the  end  of  a  line.  These 
lines  from  Macbeth  show  how  the  ending  of  a  line  is  not 
allowed  to  interfere  with  the  sense :  — 

"...  Besides,  this  Duncan 
Hath  borne  his  faculties  so  meek,  hath  been 
So  clear  in  his  great  office,  that  his  virtues 
Will  plead  like  angels,  trumpet-tongued  against 
The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking-off." 

It  is,  however,  easier  for  a  small  mind  to  catch  the  running 
sense  in  Pope  than  in  Shakespeare. 

1  Essay  on  Criticism,  line  297.  2  Ibid,  line  215. 


THE  CLASSIC  SCHOOL  235 

The  influence  of  French  writers  was  still  in  the  ascend- 
ency. Boileau  (1636-1711),  a  French  critic  and  poet, 
whom  Voltaire  called  the  Legislator  of  Parnassus,  advised 
poets  to  compose  the  second  line  of  the  couplet  first. 
No  better  rule  could  have  been  given  for  dwarfing  poetic 
power  and  for  making  poetry  artificial. 

The  Classic  School.  —  The  literary  lawgivers  of  the  first 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  held  that  a  rigid  adherence 
to  certain  narrow  rules  was  the  prime  condition  of  produ- 
cing a  masterpiece.  Indeed,  the  belief  was  common  that  a 
knowledge  of  rules  was  more  important  than  genius. 

The  men  of  this  school  are  called  classicists  because 
they  held  that  a  study  of  the  best  works  of  the  ancients 
would  disclose  the  necessary  guiding  rules.  No  style 
which  did  not  closely  follow  these  rules  was  considered 
good.  Horace  was  the  one  classical  author  most  copied 
by  this  school.  His  Epistles  and  Satires  were  considered 
models.  The  writers  of  this  age  were  not  the  first  class- 
icists. In  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  a  determined  effort  was 
made  to  have  the  English  drama  develop  on  classic  lines 
(p.  143).  The  classicists  then  tried  to  laugh  down  any 
play  that  did  not  observe  the  rules  of  Seneca  and  regard  the 
classical  unities  of  time  and  place.  The  Elizabethans 
turned  away  from  the  laughers  to  listen  to  Shakespeare. 
The  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  no  such 
genius,  and  all  writers  in  order  to  be  popular  followed  the 
classical  rules. 

The  motto  of  this  school,  of  which  Pope  was  the  chief, 
was  polished  regularity.  The  classicists  cared  little  for  the 
fields,  the  flowers,  and  the  birds.  The  writers  closed  their 
ears  to  the  great  symphony  of  nature.  They  despised  en- 
thusiasm and  the  fire  of  passion.  They  disliked  anything 
that  was  romantic,  irregular,  or  improbable.  We  find  them 


236  FROM   1700  TO  1740 

condemning  the  Arabian  Nights  on  the  score  of  improb- 
ability. Voltaire,  a  French  classicist,  says :  "  I  do  not  like 
the  monstrous  irregularities  of  Shakespeare."  An  eigh- 
teenth century  classicist  endeavored  to  improve  Hamlet's 
soliloquy  by  putting  it  in  rhyming  couplets.  These  lines 
show  his  attempt  at  improvement :  — 

"  My  anxious  soul  is  tore  with  doubtful  strife, 
And  hangs  suspended  betwixt  death  and  life ; 
Life  !  death  !  dread  objects  of  mankind's  debate  I 
Whether  superior  to  the  shocks  of  fate, 
To  bear  its  fiercest  ills  with  steadfast  mind, 
To  Nature's  order  piously  resigned,"  etc.1 

Pope  was  appealed  to  by  an  Episcopal  bishop  to  polish 
some  of  Milton's  poetry. 

Such  views  could  not  remain  in  the  ascendency  very 
long,  if  imagination  and  fancy  were  to  make  their  existence 
felt.  In  1730  James  Thomson  (1700-1748)  published  a 
romantic  poem  entitled  The  Seasons.  This  deals  with  the 
fields,  flowers,  woods,  and  streams.  It  takes  us  where 

"  The  hawthorn  whitens  ;  and  the  juicy  groves 
Put  forth  their  buds."  2 

This  poem  shows  the  revolt  against  the  narrowness  of  the 
classical  school.  In  the  next  chapter  we  can  trace  the 
progress  of  the  revolt. 

The  Prevalence  of  Satire. — The  satirist  is  a  critic  who 
searches  for  defects  in  order  to  ridicule  them.  Criticism 
that  concerns  itself  exclusively  with  faults  is  a  mark  of 
deterioration  in  an  age  or  in  an  individual.  The  highest 
criticism  is  constructive,  not  destructive ;  that  is,  it  shows 
the  way  to  better  achievements,  instead  of  contenting  itself 
with  merely  holding  existing  things  up  to  scorn. 

1  William  Hamilton  of  Bangour :   Poems  and  Songs,  p.  65. 

2  Spring,  from  The  Seasons. 


AN  AGE  OF  PROSE  237 

The  greatest  writers  of  this  age,  in  both  poetry  and 
prose,  were  satirists.  Dean  Swift,  Joseph  Addison,  and 
Alexander  Pope  excelled  in  satirizing  the  existing  order  of 
things.  Much  of  their  work  is  of  the  very  highest  order 
of  excellence  as  satire,  but  the  point  to  be  remembered  is 
that  satire  can  never  be  the  highest  type  of  literature. 

The  intense  party  strife  between  Whigs  and  Tories  in- 
creased the  tendency  toward  satire,  for  the  leaders  of  each 
party  were  eager  to  get  the  services  of  the  greatest  writers 
to  satirize  the  opposition.  Men  of  the  rank  of  Swift  and 
Defoe  employed  their  pens  in  political  satire. 

An  Age  of  Prose.  —  In  each  preceding  age,  if  we  except 
the  work  of  Bunyan,  the  masterpieces  were  poetry,  but 
the  prose  of  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  far 
surpasses  the  poetry.  Daniel  Defoe  (pp.  277-279),  the 
author  of  Robinson  Crusoe,  Dean  Swift,  the  author  of 
Gulliver's  Travels,  Richard  Steele  and  Joseph  Addison, 
the  great  essayists,  are  the  principal  prose  writers  of  the 
period.  The  question  has  been  often  discussed  whether 
Alexander  Pope,  the  greatest  writer  in  verse,  is  a  true  poet. 

Matthew  Arnold  says  :  "  The  glory  of  English  literature 
is  in  poetry,  and  in  poetry  the  strength  of  the  eighteenth 
century  does  not  lie.  Nevertheless  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury accomplished  for  us  an  immense  literary  progress, 
and  its  very  shortcomings  in  poetry  were  an  instrument 
to  that  progress,  and  served  it.  The  example  of  Ger- 
many may  show  us  what  a  nation  loses  from  having 
no  prose  style.  .  .  .  French  prose  is  marked  in  the 
highest  degree  by  the  qualities  of  regularity,  uniformity, 
precision,  balance.  .  .  .  The  French  made  their  poetry 
also  conform  to  the  law  which  was  molding  their 
prose.  .  .  .  This  may  have  been  bad  for  French  poetry, 
but  it  was  good  for  French  prose."  It  is  unques- 


238  FROM   1700  TO   1740 

tionably  true  that  French  writers  exerted  a  powerful 
influence  in  changing  the  cumbersome  style  of  Mil- 
ton's prose  to  the  polished,  neatly  turned  sentences  of 
Addison.  The  same  influence  which  gave  vigor,  point, 
and  definiteness  to  the  prose,  necessary  for  the  business 
of  the  world,  helped  to  dwarf  the  poetry.  If  both  could 
not  advance  together,  we  may  be  thankful  that  the  eigh- 
teenth century  gave  us  a  varied  prose  of  such  high 
excellence. 

JONATHAN   SWIFT,   1667-1745 

Life.  —  Swift,  one  of  the  greatest  prose  writers  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  born  of  English  parents  in  Dublin 
in  1667.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  know  something  of 
his  life  in  order  to  pass  proper  judgment  on  his  writings. 
A  cursory  examination  of  his  life  will  show  that  heredity 
and  environment  were  responsible  for  many  of  his  pe- 
culiarities. Swift's  father  died  a  few  months  before 
the  birth  of  his  son,  and  the  boy  saw  but  little  of  his 
mother. 

Swift's  school  and  college  life  were  passed  at  Kilkenny 
School  and  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  For  his  education 
he  seems  to  have  been  dependent  on  the  charity  of  an 
uncle,  who  made  the  boy  feel  the  bitterness  of  receiving 
something  at  another's  hand.  In  after  times  he  said  that 
his  uncle  treated  him  like  a  dog.  Swift's  early  experience 
seems  to  have  made  him  misanthropic  and  hardened  to 
consequences,  for  he  neglected  certain  studies  and  came 
near  failing  to  take  his  A.  B.  degree. 

After  his  graduation  in  1688,  he  spent  almost  ten 
years  as  the  private  secretary  of  Sir  William  Temple, 
at  Moor  Park  in  Surrey,  about  forty  miles  southwest 
of  London.  Temple  had  been  asked  to  furnish  some 


JONATHAN  SWIFT 


239 


employment  for  the  young  graduate  because  Lady 
Temple  was  related  to  Swift's  mother.  Here,  Swift  was 
probably  treated  as  a  dependent,  and  he  had  to  eat 
at  the  second  table.  Finally,  this  life  became  so  intoler- 
able that  he  took  holy  orders  and  went  to  a  little  parish 
in  Ireland,  a  country  that  he  hated.  After  a  stay  of 
eighteen  months  there,  he  returned  to  Moor  Park,  where 
he  remained  until  Temple's  death  in  1699. 
Swift  then  went  to  another  little  country 
parish  in  Ireland.  From 


MOOR    PARK 


From  a  print. 

there  he  went  to 
London  on  a  mission 

in  behalf  of  the  Episcopal  church  in  Ireland.  He  quar- 
reled with  the  Whigs,  became  a  Tory,  and  assisted  that 
party  by  writing  many  political  pamphlets.  The  Tory 
ministry  soon  felt  that  it  could  scarcely  do  without  him. 
He  dined  with  ministers  of  state,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
important  men  in  London.  He  advanced  the  interests  of 
his  friends  much  better  than  his  own,  for  he  got  little  from 
the  government  except  the  hope  of  becoming  a  bishop. 
In  1713  he  was  made  dean  of  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral, 


240  FROM    1700  TO  1740 

Dublin.  In  1714  Queen  Anne  died,  the  Tories  went  out 
of  power,  and  Swift  returned  to  Ireland  a  disappointed 
man.  He  passed  the  rest  of  his  life  there,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  visits  to  England. 

Swift  championed  the  Irish  cause  when  English  poli- 
ticians endeavored  to  oppress  Ireland  with  unjust  laws. 
A  man  who  knew  him  well,  says  :  "  I  never  saw  the  poor 
so  carefully  and  conscientiously  attended  to  as  those  of  his 
cathedral."  He  gave  up  a  large  part  of  his  income 
every  year  for  the  poor.  In  Dublin  he  was  looked  upon 
as  a  hero.  When  a  certain  person  tried  to  be  revenged 
on  Swift  for  a  satire,  a  deputation  of  Swift's  neighbors 
proposed  to  thrash  the  man.  Swift  sent  them  home,  but 
they  boycotted  the  man  and  lowered  his  income  £,1200 
a  year. 

During  the  last  years  of  his  life,  Swift  was  hopelessly 
insane.  He  died  in  1745,  leaving  his  property  for  an 
asylum  for  lunatics  and  incurables. 

There  are  unsolved  mysteries  in  Swift's  life.  He 
suffered  from  an  unknown  brain  disease  for  the  principal 
part  of  his  existence.  This  affection,  the  galling  treat- 
ment received  in  his  early  years,  and  the  disappointments 
of  his  prime,  largely  account  for  his  misanthropy,  for  his 
coldness,  and  for  the  almost  brutal  treatment  of  the 
women  who  loved  him  —  treatment  against  which  Thack- 
eray inveighs  powerfully. 

Swift's  attachment  to  the  beautiful  Hester  Johnson, 
known  in  literature  as  Stella,  led  him  to  write  to  her  that 
famous  series  of  letters  known  as  the  Journal  to  Stella, 
in  which  he  gives  much  of  his  personal  history  during  the 
three  sunniest  years  of  his  life,  from  1710  to  1713,  when 
he  was  a  lion  in  London.  Thackeray  says :  "  I  know  of 
nothing  more  manly,  more  tender,  more  exquisitely  touch- 


JONATHAN   SWIFT 


241 


ing,  than  some  of  these  brief  notes,  written  in  what  Swift 
calls  his  'little  language'  in  his  Journal  to  Stella." 

A  Tale  of  a  Tub.  —  Swift's  greatest  satiric  allegory  is 
known  as  A  Tale  of  a  Tub:  The  purpose  of  the  work 
is  to  satirize  Romanists  and  Calvinists,  and  to  uphold  the 
Episcopalians.  For  those  not  interested  in  theological 
arguments,  there  is  much  entertaining  philosophy,  as  the 
following  quotation  will  show  :  — 

"  If  we  take  an  examination  of  what  is  generally  understood  by  hap- 
piness, as  it  has  respect  either  to  the  understanding  or  the  senses,  we 
shall  find  all  its  properties  and  adjuncts  will  herd  under  this  short  defi- 


242  FROM   1700  TO   1740 

nition,  that  it  is  a  perpetual  possession  of  being  well  deceived.  And 
first,  with  relation  to  the  mind  or  understanding,  it  is  manifest  what 
mighty  advantages  fiction  has  over  truth  ;  and  the  reason  is  just  at  our 
elbow,  because  imagination  can  build  nobler  scenes  and  produce  more 
wonderful  revolutions  than  fortune  or  nature  will  be  at  expense  to. 
furnish." 

Swift's  satiric  definition  of  happiness  as  the  art  "  of  being 
well  deceived  "  is  a  characteristic  instance  of  a  combina- 
tion of  his  humor  and  pessimistic  philosophy. 

Gulliver's  Travels.  —  The  world  is  always  ready  to  lis- 
ten to  any  one  who  has  a  good  story  to  tell.  Neither 
children  nor  philosophers  have  yet  wearied  of  reading  the 
adventures  of  Captain  Lemuel  Gulliver  in  Lilliput  and 
Brobdingnag.  Gulliver's  Travels  is  Swift's  most  famous 
work. 

In  Lilliput  we  are  introduced  to  a  race  of  men  about 
six  inches  high.  Everything  is  on  a  corresponding  scale. 
Gulliver  eats  a  whole  herd  of  cattle  for  breakfast  and 
drinks  several  hogsheads  of  liquor.  He  captures  an  entire 
fleet  of  war  ships.  A  rival  race  of  pygmies  endeavors  to 
secure  his  services  so  as  to  obtain  the  balance  of  power. 
The  quarrels  between  those  little  people  seem  ridiculous, 
and  so  petty  as  to  be  almost  beneath  contempt. 

The  voyage  to  Brobdingnag  shows  all  this  to  be 
changed.  Men  are  there  sixty  feet  tall,  and  the  affairs 
of  an  ordinary  human  being  appear  petty  and  insignifi- 
cant. The  cats  are  as  large  as  three  oxen,  and  the  dogs 
attain  the  size  of  four  elephants.  Gulliver  eats  on  a  table 
thirty  feet  high,  and  he  trembles  lest  he  may  fall  and 
break  his  neck.  The  baby  seizes  Gulliver  and  tries  to 
swallow  his  head.  Afterward  the  hero  fights  a  desperate 
battle  with  two  rats.  A  monkey  catches  him  and  carries 
him  to  the  almost  infinite  height  of  the  house  top.  Cer- 


JONATHAN   SWIFT  243 

tainly  the  voyages  to  Lilliput  and  Brobdingnag  merit 
Leslie  Stephen's  criticism  of  being  "  almost  the  most  de- 
lightful children's  book  ever  written." 

The  voyage  to  Laputa  satirizes  the  philosophers.  We 
are  taken  through  the  academy  at  Lagado  and  are  shown 
a  typical  philosopher  :  — 

"He  had  been  eight  years  upon  a  project  for  extracting  sunbeams 
out  of  cucumbers,  which  were  to  be  put  in  vials,  hermetically  sealed, 
and  let  out  to  warm  the  air  in  raw,  inclement  summers.  He  told  me 
he  did  not  doubt  that  in  eight  years  more  he  should  be  able  to  supply 
the  governor's  gardens  with  sunshine  at  a  reasonable  rate." 

In  this  voyage  the  Struldbrugs  are  described.  They 
are  a  race  of  men  who,  after  the  loss  of  every  faculty  and 
of  every  tie  that  binds  them  to  earth,  are  doomed  to  con- 
tinue living.  Dante  never  painted  a  stronger  or  a  ghastlier 
picture.  The  voyage  to  the  country  of  the  Houyhnhnms 
describes  the  Yahoos,  who  are  the  embodiment  of  all  the 
detestable  qualities  of  human  beings.  The  last  two  voy- 
ages are  not  pleasant  reading,  and  one  might  wish  that 
the  author  of  two  such  inimitable  tales  as  the  adventures 
in  Lilliput  and  Brobdingnag  had  stopped  with  these. 

Children  read  Gulliver's  Travels  for  the  story,  but 
there  is  more  than  a  story  in  the  work.  In  its  pages 
the  historian  finds  allusions  and  side  lights  that  reveal 
the  age  more  distinctly.  Among  the  Lilliputians,  there  is 
one  party,  known  as  the  Bigendians,  which  insists  that  all 
eggs  shall  be  broken  open  at  the  big  end,  while  another 
party,  called  the  Littleendians,  contends  that  eggs  shall  be 
opened  only  at  the  little  end.  These  differences  typify  the 
quarrels  of  the  age  concerning  religion  and  politics.  The 
Travels  also  contains  much  human  philosophy.  The  lover 
of  satire  is  constantly  delighted  with  the  keenness  of  the 
thrusts. 


244  FROM   1700  TO   1740 

General  Characteristics.  —  Swift  is  one  of  the  greatest 
of  English  prose  humorists.  He  is  also  noted  for  wit 
of  that  satiric  kind  which  enjoys  the  discomfiture  of  the 
victim.  A  typical  instance  is  shown  in  the  way  in  which 
he,  under  the  assumed  name  of  Isaac  Bickerstaff,  dealt 
with  an  astrologer  and  maker  of  prophetic  almanacs,  whose 
name  was  Partridge.  Bickerstaff  claimed  to  be  an  infalli- 
ble astrologer,  and  he  predicted  that  Partridge  would  die 
March  29,  1708,  at  11  P.M.  When  that  day  had  passed, 
Bickerstaff  issued  a  pamphlet  giving  a  circumstantial  ac- 
count of  Partridge's  death.  Partridge,  finding  that  his 
customers  began  to  decrease,  protested  that  he  was  alive. 
Bickerstaff  promptly  replied  that  Partridge  was  dead  by 
his  own  infallible  rules  of  astrology,  and  that  the  man  now 
claiming  to  be  Partridge  was  a  vile  impostor. 

Swift's  wit  frequently  left  its  imprint  on  the  thought 
of  the  time.  The  results  of  this  special  prank  with  the 
astrologer  were :  first,  to  cause  the  wits  of  the  town  to  join 
in  the  hue  and  cry  that  Partridge  was  dead ;  second,  to 
increase  the  contempt  for  astrologers ;  and,  third,  in  the 
words  of  Scott :  "  The  most  remarkable  consequence  of 
Swift's  frolic  was  the  establishment  of  the  Tatler"  Richard 
Steele,  its  founder,  adopted  the  popular  name  of  Isaac 
Bickerstaff  (p.  248). 

Taine  says  of  Swift :  "  He  is  the  inventor  of  irony, 
as  Shakespeare  of  poetry."  The  most  powerful  instance 
of  Swift's  irony  is  shown  in  his  attempt  to  make  the  Irish 
understand  the  brutality  of  rearing  large  families  in  igno- 
rance, rags,  hunger,  and  crime.  His  Modest  Proposal  for 
relieving  such  distress  is  to  have  the  children  at  the  age 
of  one  year  served  as  a  new  dish  on  the  tables  of  the 
great.  So  apt  is  irony  to  be  misunderstood  and  to  fail 
of  its  mark,  that  the  Irish  thought  that  Swift  was  brutal, 


JOSEPH   ADDISON 


245 


instead  of  themselves.  His  ironical  remarks  on  The  Abol- 
ishing of  Christianity  were  also  misunderstood. 

We  shall  search  Swift's  work  in  vain  for  examples  of 
pathos  or  sublimity.  We  shall  find  his  pages  caustic  with 
wit,  satire,  and  irony,  and  often  disfigured  with  coarseness. 
One  of  the  great  pessimists  of  all  time,  he  is  yet  tremen- 
dously in  earnest  in  whatever  he  says,  from  his  Drapier's 
Letters,  written  to  protect  Ireland  from  the  schemes  of 
English  politicians,  to  his  Gulliver's  Travels,  where  he 
describes  the  court  of  Lilliput.  This  earnestness  and 
circumstantial  minuteness  throw  an  air  of  reality  around 
his  most  grotesque  creations. 

Although  sublimity  and  pathos  are  outside  of  his  range, 
his  style  is  remarkably  well  adapted  to  the  special  sub- 
ject matter  that  he  chose.  While  reading  his  works,  one 
scarcely  ever  thinks  of  his  style,  unless  the  attention  is 
specially  directed  to  it.  Only  a  great  artist  can  thus  con- 
ceal his  art.  A  style  so  natural  as  this  has  especial  merits 
which  will  repay  study.  Three  of  its  chief  characteristics 
are  simplicity,  flexibility,  and  energetic  directness. 


JOSEPH    ADDISON,    1672-1719 

Life.  —  Joseph  Addison  was  born  in  the  paternal  rectory 
at  Milston,  a  small  village  in 
the    eastern    part    of 
Wiltshire.   .He 
was  educated  at 
Oxford,    and   he 
intended    to    be- 
come   a    clergy- 
man, but  he  had 
attracted   attention 


HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  1 6 


•••••.'  From  an  old  print. 

ADDISON'S    BIRTHPLACE 


246 


FROM   1700  TO   1740 


by  his  graceful  Latin  poetry,  and  he  was  dissuaded  by 
influential  court  friends  from  entering  the  service  of  the 
church.  They  persuaded  him  to  fit  himself  for  the  diplo- 
matic service,  and  they  secured  for  him  a  yearly  pension 
of  ^300.  He  then  went  to  France,  studied  the  language 
of  that  country,  and  traveled  extensively,  so  as  to  gain  a 
knowledge  of  foreign  courts.  The  death  of  King  William 
in  1702  stopped  the  pension,  and  Addison  was  forced  to 
return  to  England  and  seek  employment  as  a  tutor. 

The  great  battle  of  Blenheim  was  won  by  Marlborough 
in  1 704.     As  Macaulay  says,  the  ministry  was  mortified  to 


JOSEPH  ADDISON  247 

see  such  a  victory  celebrated  by  so  much  bad  poetry,  and 
he  instances  these  lines  from  one  of  the  poems  :  — 

"  Think  of  two  thousand  gentlemen  at  least, 
And  each  man  mounted  on  his  capering  beast ; 
Into  the  Danube  they  were  pushed  by  shoals." 

The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  went  to  Addison's 
humble  lodgings  and  asked  him  to  write  a  poem  in  honor 
of  the  battle.  Addison  took  the  town  by  storm  with  a 
simile  in  which  the  great  general  was  likened  to  the  calm 
angel  of  the  whirlwind.  When  people  reflected  how 
calmly  Marlborough  had  directed  the  whirlwind  of  war, 
they  thought  that  no  comparison  could  be  more  felici- 
tous. From  that  time  Addison's  fortunes  rose.  Since  his 
day  no  other  man  relying  on  literary  talents  alone  has 
risen  so  high  in  state  affairs.  He  was  made  assistant 
Secretary  of  State,  Secretary  for  Ireland,  and  finally  chief 
Secretary  of  State. 

Though  Addison  was  a  prominent  figure  in  the  political 
world,  his  literary  life  most  concerns  us.  In  his  prime  he 
wrote  for  The  Tatler  and  The  Spectator,  famous  news- 
papers of  Queen  Anne's  day,  many  inimitable  essays 
on  contemporary  life  and  manners.  Most  newspaper 
work  is  forgotten  with  the  setting  sun,  but  these  essays 
are  eagerly  read  by  the  most  cultivated  people  of  to-day. 
His  own  age  thought  his  tragedy  of  Cato,  a  drama  observ- 
ing the  classical  unities,  his  most  famous  production.  This 
fact  shows  how  unreliable  contemporary  opinion  may  be 
concerning  the  merit  of  an  author's  works,  for  Cato  is  now 
little  read.  Some  of  his  Hymns  are  much  finer.  Lines 
like  these,  written  of  the  stars,  linger  in  our  memories  :  — 

"  Forever  singing  as  they  shine, 
The  hand  that  made  us  is  divine." 


248 


FROM   1700  TO   1740 


Addison  had  a  singularly  pleasing  personality.    Though 
he  was  a  Whig,  the  Tories  admired  and  applauded  him. 
He  was  a  good  illustration  of  the  truth  that  if  one  smiles 
in  the  mirror  of 
the    world,    it 
will  answer  him 
with    a   smile. 
Swift  said  he 
believed    the 
English  would 
have  made  Ad- 
dison king,  if 
they  had  been 

'-  ~---^^fc«B^n^Mtt%>lB/^U««WU^h.* 

•'•* 

_  **     .  •  -  rr.'T-fw    '     •'  '      —  -' 

to  place 

him  on  the 

throne.    Pope's 

jealous    nature 

strove  to  quarrel  with  Addison,  but  the  quarrel  was  chiefly 

on  one  side.      Men  like  Macaulay  and  Thackeray  have 

exerted  their  powers  to  do  justice  to  the  kindliness  and 

integrity  of  Addison. 

Addison  died  at  the  age  of  forty-seven,  and  was  buried 
in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Collaborates  with  Steele.  —  Under  the  pen  name  of 
Isaac  Bickerstaff,  Richard  Steele  (1672-1729),  a  former 
schoolmate  and  friend  of  Addison,  started  in  1709  The 
Tatler,  a  periodical  published  three  times  a  week.  This 
discussed  matters  of  interest  in  society  and  politics,  and 
occasionally  published  an  essay  on  morals  and  manners. 
Steele  was  a  good-natured,  careless  individual,  who  had 
had  experience  as  a  soldier,  playwright,  moralist,  keeper 
of  the  official  gazette,  and  pensioner.  He  says  that  he 


From  an  old  print. 


ADDISON'S    HOME    AT    BILTON,   WARWICKSHIRE 


JOSEPH  ADDISON 


249 


RICHARD   STEELE 


always  "  preferred  the  state  of  his  mind  to  that  of  his 
fortune,"  but  his  mental  state  was  often  fickle,  and  too 
much  dependent  on  bodily  luxuries,  though  he  was  pa- 
triotic enough  to  sacrifice  his  personal 
fortune    for   what    he  considered  his 
country's  interest. 

We  find  Addison  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  The  Tatler  after  its  seven- 
teenth  number.      Steele  says  :  "  I 
fared  like  a  distressed  prince  who 
calls  in  a  powerful  neighbor  to  his 
aid ;  I  was  undone  by  my  auxiliary ; 
when  I  had  once  called  him  in,  I 
could  not  subsist  without  depend- 
ence on  him." 

The  Tatler  was  discontinued  in  1711,  and  the  more  fa- 
mous Spectator  was  begun  two  months  later.  Addison  wrote 
the  first  number,  but  the  second  issue,  which  came  from 
Steele's  pen,  contains  sketches  of  those  characters  which 
have  become  famous  in  the  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers. 
While  Steele  should  have  full  credit  for  the  first  bold 
sketches,  the  finished  portraits  in  the  de  Coverley  gallery 
are  due  to  Addison.  In  many  respects,  each  seemed  to  be 
the  complement  of  the  other.  Steele's  writings  have  not 
the  polish  or  delicate  humor  of  Addison's,  but  they  have 
more  strength  and  pathos.  From  the  neglect  of  Steele  and 
the  enduring  interest  in  Addison,  the  student  should  learn 
the  valuable  lesson  that  artistic  finish,  as  well  as  ex- 
cellence of  subject  matter,  has  become  almost  a  necessity 
for  a  prose  writer  who  would  not  be  soon  neglected. 

Addison,  however,  needed  as  a  starting  point  the  sug- 
gestive originality  of  Steele.  Of  Addison,  Steele  says : 
"  I  claim  to  myself  the  merit  of  having  extorted  excellent 


2 $O  FROM    1700  TO   1740 

productions  from  a  person  of  the  greatest  abilities,  who 
would  not  have  let  them  appear  by  any  other  means."  If 
it  is  true  that  the  majority  of  readers  to-day  neglect 
Steele's  work,  it  is  also  true  that  but  for  him  they  would 
not  have  Addison's  best  essays  with  which  to  charm  many 
an  idle  hour. 

Addison's  Essays.  —  The  greatest  of  Addison's  Essays 
appeared  in  The  Spectator,  which  was  published  every  week 
day  for  555  issues.  The  subject  matter  of  these  Essays  is 
extremely  varied.  On  one  day  there  is  a  pleasant  paper 
on  witches ;  on  another,  a  chat  about  the  new  woman ; 
on  another,  a  discourse  on  clubs.  Addison  is  properly  a 
moral  satirist,  and  his  pen  did  much  more  than  the  pulpit 
to  civilize  the  age  and  make  virtue  the  fashion.  In  The 
Spectator,  he  says  :  "  If  I  meet  with  anything  in  city, 
court,  or  country,  that  shocks  modesty  or  good  manners, 
I  shall  use  my  utmost  endeavors  to  make  an  example  of 
it."  He  accomplished  his  purpose,  not  by  heated  denun- 
ciations of  vice,  but  by  holding  it  up  to  kindly  ridicule. 
He  remembered  the  fable  of  the  different  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  north  wind  and  the  sun  to  make  a  man  lay 
aside  an  ugly  cloak. 

Addison  also  stated  that  one  of  his  objects  was  to  bring 
"  philosophy  out  of  closets  and  libraries,  schools  and  col- 
leges, to  dwell  in  clubs  and  assemblies,  at  tea  tables  and 
coffeehouses."  His  papers  on  Milton  did  much  to  dimin- 
ish that  great  poet's,  unpopularity  in  an  age  that  loved 
form  rather  than  matter,  art  rather  than  natural  strength. 

The  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers.  —  The  most  famous 
of  Addison's  productions  are  his  papers  which  appeared 
in  The  Spectator,  describing  a  typical  country  gentleman, 
Sir  Roger  de  Coverley,  and  his  friends  and  servants.  Taine 
says  that  Addison  here  invented  the  novel  without  sus- 


JOSEPH    ADDISON  251 

pecting  it.  This  is  an  overstatement,  but  these  papers 
certainly  have  the  interest  of  a  novel  from  the  moment 
Sir  Roger  appears  until  his  death,  and  the  delineation 
of  character  is  far  in  advance  of  what  the  majority  of 
modern  novels  can  show.  We  find  ourselves  rereading 
the  de  Coverley  papers  more  than  once,  a  statement  that 
can  be  made  of  but  few  novels. 

General  Characteristics.  —  Before  we  have  read  many  of 
Addison's  essays,  we  shall  discover  that  he  is  a  humorist 
of  high  rank.  His  humor  is  of  the  kind  that  makes  one 
smile,  rather  than  laugh  aloud.  We  are  amused,  for  in- 
stance, by  this  sentence  from  Spectator  No.  112  : — 

"  As  Sir  Roger  is  landlord  to  the  whole  congregation,  he  keeps  them 
in  very  good  order,  and  will  suffer  nobody  to  sleep  in  it  besides  himself; 
for.  if  by  chance  he  has  been  surprised  into  a  short  nap  at  sermon,  upon 
recovering  out  of  it,  he  stands  up  and  looks  about  him,  and,  if  he  sees 
anybody  else  nodding,  either  wakes  them  up  himself,  or  sends  his 
servants  to  them." 

The  paper,  Of  Clttbs  in  General,  is  highly  entertaining 
because  of  its  humor  :  — 

"When  a  set  of  men  find  themselves  agree  in  any  particular,  though 
never  so  trivial,  they  establish  themselves  into  a  kind  of  fraternity,  and 
meet  once  or  twice  a  week  upon  the  account  of  such  a  fantastic  resem- 
blance. I  know  a  considerable  market  town,  in  which  there  was  a  club 
of  fat  men.  .  .  .  The  room  where  the  club  met  was  something  of  the 
largest,  and  had  two  entrances,  —  the  one  by  a  door  of  a  moderate  size, 
and  the  other  by  a  pair  of  folding  doors.  If  a  candidate  for  this  cor- 
pulent club  could  make  his  entrance  through  the  first,  he  was  looked 
upon  as  unqualified  ;  but  if  he  stuck  in  the  passage,  and  could  not  force 
his  way  through  it,  the  folding  doors  were  immediately  thrown  open  for 
his  reception,  and  he  was  saluted  as  a  brother.  .  .  . 

"In  opposition  to  this  society,  there  sprang  up  another,  composed 
of  scarecrows  and  skeletons,  who,  being  very  meager  and  envious,  did 
all  they  could  to  thwart  the  designs  of  their  bulky  brethren."  1 

1  The  Spectator,  No.  9. 


252  FROM   1700  TO  1740 

Some  of  the  Rules  for  the  Twopenny  Club  show  Addi- 
son's  humor  at  its  best :  — 

"  If  any  member  absents  himself,  he  shall  forfeit  a  penny  for  the  use 
of  the  club,  unless  in  case  of  sickness  or  imprisonment. 

"  If  any  member  brings  his  wife  into  the  club,  he  shall  pay  for  what- 
ever she  drinks  or  smokes. 

"If  any  member's  wife  comes  to  fetch  him  home  from  the  club,  she 
shall  speak  to  him  without  the  door. 

"None  shall  be  admitted  into  the  club  that  is  of  the  same  trade 
with  any  member  of  it." 

It  is  well  to  notice  in  the  preceding  quotations  the  pecul- 
iarity of  Addison's  humor,  for  to  this  quality  chiefly  he 
owes  his  legions  of  readers.  His  wit  is  never  used  against 
morality.  He  is  a  satirist,  but  his  satire  is  not  personal, 
like  Pope's,  or  misanthropical,  like  Swift's. 

Of  his  style,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  says :  "  Whosoever 
wishes  to  attain  an  English  style,  familiar  but  not  coarse,  and 
elegant  but  not  ostentatious,  must  give  his  days  and  nights 
to  the  study  of  Addison."  This  is  stronger  praise  than  the 
present  century  would  accord.  His  sentences  are  smooth 
and  elegant,  but  they  need  the  additional  qualities  of 
variety,  incisiveness,  energy,  and,  occasionally,  of  pre- 
cision, to  perfect  them. 


ALEXANDER   POPE,   1688-1744 

Life.  —  Alexander  Pope  was  born  in  London  in  1688. 
His  father  was  a  merchant  and  a  devout  believer  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion.  The  future  poet  was  not 
allowed  to  go  either  to  a  public  school  or  to  a  university. 
He  picked  up  almost  all  of  his  education  in  a  haphazard 
way,  reading  those  authors  that  pleased  his  fancy. 


ALEXANDER   POPE 


253 


In  his  childhood,  his  parents  removed  from  London  to 
Binfield,  a  village  in  Berkshire,  nine  miles  from  Windsor. 
When  nearly  thirty,  he  went  to  Twickenham,  a  rural  place 
on  the  Thames,  near  London.  Here  he  indulged  his  fancy 
for  landscape  gardening  and  lived  in  quiet  for  the  chief 
part  of  the  rest  of  his  life. 

He  was  a  very  precocious  child.  At  the  age  of  twelve 
he  was  writing  an  Ode  on  Solitude.  He  chose  his  voca- 
tion early,  for  writing  poetry  was  the  business  of  his  life. 

On  the  basis  of  what  he  wrote,  we  may  divide  his  life 
into  three  periods.  During  his  first  thirty  years,  he  pro- 


254  FROM    1700  TO   1740 

duced  various  kinds  of  verse,  like  the  Essay  on  Criticism 
and  The  Rape  of  tJie  Lock.  The  middle  period  of  his  life 
was  marked  by  his  translation  of  Homer's  Iliad  and  Odyssey. 
In  his  third  period,  he  wrote  moral  and  didactic  poems,  like 
the  Essay  on  Man,  and  satires,  like  the  Dnnciad. 

By  nature  he  was  secretive  and  given  to  double  dealing. 
It  was  said  that  he  could  hardly  drink  tea  without  stratagem. 
His  vanity  prompted  him  to  take  steps  to  have  published  a 
volume  of  his  letters  to  various  friends.  Fearing  that  he 
would  be  criticised  if  he  gave  these  letters  to  the  public 
himself,  he  arranged  to  have  them  stolen  and  published 
apparently  against  his  will.  While  accomplishing  this, 
he  became  involved  in  a  network  of  falsehoods.  Leslie 
Stephen  says  of  him :  "  He  would  instinctively  snatch  at 
a  lie  even  when  a  moment's  reflection  would  have  shown 
that  the  plain  truth  would  be  more  convenient,  and  there- 
fore he  had  to  accumulate  lie  upon  lie,  each  intended 
to  patch  up  the  other." 

In  spite  of  such  failings,  Pope  had  some  admirable 
traits.  He  showed  the  world  what  careful  workmanship 
and  an  indomitable  will  could  accomplish.  His  devotion 
to  his  aged  mother  also  deserves  special  mention. 

Some  Poems  of  the  First  Period  :  Essay  on  Criticism  and 
The  Rape  of  the  Lock.  —  In  1711  Pope  gave  to  the  world 
a  poem  entitled  Essay  on  Criticism.  This  is  merely  an 
exquisite  setting  of  a  number  of  gems  of  criticism  which 
had  for  a  long  time  been  current.  Pope's  intention  in 
writing  this  poem  may  be  seen  from  what  he  himself  says : 
"  It  seems  not  so  much  the  perfection  of  sense  to  say 
things  that  have  never  been  said  before,  as  to  express 
those  best  that  have  been  said  oftenest." 

From  this  point  of  view,  the  poem  is  a  remarkable  one. 
No  other  writer,  save  Shakespeare,  has  in  an  equal  num- 


ALEXANDER   POPE 


255 


From  an  old  print. 


POPE'S    HOME    AT    BINFIELD 

ber  of  lines  said  so  many  things  which  have  passed  into 
current  quotation.  Rare  perfection  in  the  form  of  state- 
ment accounts  for  this.  The  poem  abounds  in  such  lines 
as  these  :  — 

"  For  fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread." 
"To  err  is  human,  to  forgive  divine."    • 

"All  seems  infected  that  th'  infected  spy, 
As  all  looks  yellow  to  the  jaundiced  eye." 

"  In  words,  as  fashi'ons,  the  same  rule  will  hold, 
Alike  fantastic,  if  too  new,  or  old : 
Be  not  the  first  by  whom  the  new  are  tried, 
Nor  yet  the  last  to  lay  the  old  aside." 

The  Rape  of  the  Lock  is  Pope's  masterpiece.  It  was  a 
favorite  with  Oliver  Goldsmith,  and  Lowell  rightly  says: 
"  The  whole  poem  more  truly  deserves  the  name  of  a  crea- 


356  FROM   1700  TO   1740 

tion  than  anything  Pope  ever  wrote."  The  poem  is  a 
mock  epic,  and  it  has  the  supernatural  machinery  which 
was  supposed  to  be  absolutely  necessary  for  an  epic.  In 
place  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  great  epics,  the 
fairylike  sylphs  help  to  guide  the  action  of  this  mock  epic. 

The  poem  describes  a  young  lord's  theft  of  a  lock  of 
hair  from  the  head  of  a  court  beauty.  Such  an  incident 
actually  happened,  and  Pope  composed  The  Rape  of  t/te 
Lock  to  soothe  her  indignation  and  to  effect  a  reconcilia- 
tion. This  poem,  which  should  now  be  read  entire  by 
the  student,  is  a  vivid  satiric  picture  of  fashionable  life 
in  Queen  Anne's  reign. 

Translation  of  Homer.  —  Pope's  chief  work  during  the 
middle  period  of  his  life  was  his  translation  of  the  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssey  of  Homer.  From  a  financial  point  of 
view,  these  were  the  most  successful  of  his  labors.  They 
brought  him  in  nearly  ^"9000,  and  made  him  independ- 
ent of  bookseller  or  of  nobleman. 

The  remarkable  success  of  these  translations  is  strange 
when  we  remember  that  Pope's  knowledge  of  Greek  was 
very  imperfect,  and  that  he  was  obliged  to  consult  transla- 
tions before  attempting  any  passage.  The  Greek  scholar 
Bentley,  a  contemporary  of  Pope,  delivered  a  just  verdict 
on  the  translation  :  "  A  pretty  poem,  Mr.  Pope,  but  you 
must  not  call  it  Homer."  The  historian  Gibbon  said  that 
the  poem  had  every  merit  except  faithfulness  to  the 
original. 

Homer  is  simple  and  direct.  He  abounds  in  concrete 
terms.  Pope  dislikes  a  simple  term  and  loves  a  circum- 
locution and  an  abstraction.  We  have  the  concrete  "  herd 
of  swine"  translated  into  "a  bristly  care,"  "skins,"  into 
"furry  spoils."  The  concrete  was  considered  common 
and  undignified.  Homer  says  in  simple  language  :  "  His 


ALEXANDER   POPE  257 

father  wept  with  him,"  but  Pope  translates  this:  "The 
father  poured  a  social  flood." 

Pope  used  to  translate  thirty  or  forty  verses  of  the  Iliad 
before  rising,  and  then  to  spend  a  considerable  time  in 
polishing  them.  But  half  of  the  translation  of  the 
Odyssey  is  his  own  work.  He  employed  assistants  to 
finish  the  other  half.  It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  distin- 
guish his  work  from  theirs.  To  imitate  the  work  of  a 
genius  is  not  so  easy. 

Some  Poems  of  his  Third  Period :  Essay  on  Man,  and 
Satires.  — The  Essay  on  Man  is  a  philosophical  poem  with 
the  avowed  object  of  vindicating  the  ways  of  God  to  man. 
The  entire  poem  is  an  amplification  of  the  idea  contained 
in  these  lines  :  — 

"  All  nature  is  but  art  unknown  to  thee ; 
All  chance,  direction  which  thou  canst  not  see ; 
All  discord,  harmony  not  understood  ; 
All  partial  evil,  universal  good. 
And  spite  of  pride,  in  erring  reason's  spite, 
One  truth  is  clear,  Whatever  is,  is  right.11 

The  chief  merit  of  the  poem  consists  in  throwing  into 
polished  form  many  of  the  views  current  at  the  time,  so 
that  they  may  be  easily  understood.  Before  we  read  very 
far  we  come  across  such  old  acquaintances  as 

"The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man." 
"An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God." 

"  Vice  is  a  monster  of  so  frightful  mien 
As,  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen ; 
Yet,  seen  too  oft,  familiar  with  her  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

The  Epistle  to  Dr.  Arbuthnot  and  the  Dunciad  are 
Pope's  greatest  satires.  In  the  Dunciad,  an  epic  of  the 


258  FROM   1700  TO  1740 

dunces,  he  holds  up  to  ridicule  every  person  and  writer 
who  had  offended  him.  These  were  in  many  cases  scrib- 
blers who  had  no  business  with  a  pen.  In  a  few  instances 
they  were  the  best  scholars  of  that  day.  A  great  deal  of 
the  poem  is  now  very  tiresome  reading.  Much  of  it  is 
brutal.  Pope  was  a  powerful  agent,  as  Thackeray  says, 
in  rousing  much  of  that  obloquy  which  has  ever  since 
pursued  a  struggling  author. 

General  Characteristics.  —  For  a  long  time  there  was 
considerable  dispute  in  regard  to  whether  Pope's  verse  is 
genuine  poetry.  He  has  not  strong  imagination,  a  keen 
feeling  for  nature,  or  wide  sympathy  with  man.  Leslie 
Stephen  correctly  says :  "  Pope  never  crosses  the  unde- 
finable,  but  yet  ineffaceable  line,  which  separates  true 
poetry  from  rhetoric."  No  student  can  ever  be  a  good 
critic  of  poetry  until  he  can  both  understand  arid  feel  the 
force  of  this  remark.  Many  readers  are  to-day  more 
pleased  with  rhetoric  than  with  true  poetry. 

He  is  the  poet  who  best  expresses  the  classical  spirit  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  His  works  show  the  preference 
of  his  age  for  subjects  and  form  of  treatment.  He  excels 
in  satiric  and  didactic  verse,  expresses  in  as  perfect  a  form 
as  possible  his  ideas,  which  are  frequently  not  original, 
and  embodies  them  in  classical  couplets,  sometimes  styled 
"rocking-horse  meter,"  but  he  shows  no  power  of  fathom- 
ing the  emotional  depths  of  the  soul. 

In  the  history  of  literature,  he  holds  an  important  place 
because,  more  than  any  other  writer,  he  calls  attention  to 
the  importance  of  correctness  of  form,  and  of  avoiding 
slovenliness  of  expression.  He  is  the  prince  of  artificial 
poets.  Though  he  erred  in  exalting  form  above  matter, 
the  lesson  of  careful  workmanship  which  he  taught  his 
age,  was  a  needed  one. 


SUMMARY  259 

SUMMARY 

The  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  marked  by 
a  low  moral  standard  in  both  church  and  state.  This 
standard  had  its  effect  on  literature.  We  find  no  such 
sublime  outbursts  of  song  as  characterize  the  Elizabethan 
and  Puritan  ages.  The  writers  chose  satiric  or  didactic 
subjects,  and  avoided  pathos,  deep  feeling,  and  sublimity. 

The  age  was  molded  by  classical  influence.  Horace 
in  his  Epistles  and  Satires  was  the  patron  saint  of  criti- 
cism. The  classical  school  loved  polished  regularity. 
An  old  idea,  dressed  in  exquisite  form,  was  as  welcome 
as  a  new  one.  Anything  strange,  irregular,  romantic, 
full  of  feeling,  highly  imaginative,  or  improbable  to  the 
intellect,  was  unpopular.  Even  in  Gulliver's  Travels, 
Swift  endeavored  to  be  as  realistic  as  if  he  were  demon- 
strating a  geometrical  proposition.  Pope  is  the  great 
poetic  exponent  of  this  school. 

The  age  is  far  more  remarkable  for  its  prose  than  for 
its  poetry.  French  influence  helped  to  develop  a  concise, 
flexible,  energetic  prose  style.  The  deterioration  in 
poetry  was  partly  compensated  for  by  the  rapid  advances 
in  prose,  which  needed  the  influences  working  toward 
artistic  finish.  Of  all  the  prose  writers  since  Swift's  time, 
few  have  equaled  him  and  still  fewer  surpassed  him  in 
simplicity,  flexibility,  directness,  and  lack  of  affectation. 
In  grace  of  style,  delicate  humor,  and  the  power  of  awak- 
ening and  retaining  interest,  Addison's  Essays  have  no 
superiors. 

The  influence  of  this  age  was  sufficient  to  raise  perma- 
nently the  standard  level  of  artistic  literary  expression. 
The  unpruned,  shapeless,  and  extravagant  forms  of  earlier 
times  will  no  longer  be  tolerated. 


260  FROM   1700  TO   1740 

REQUIRED   READINGS   FOR   CHAPTER   VII 
HISTORICAL 

Gardiner,1  pp.  671-729;  Green,  pp.  701-734;  Underwood-Guest, 
pp.  508-523  ;  Guerber,  pp.  291-303  ;  Wakeling's  King  and  Parliament, 
pp.  115-128;  and  HassalPs  Making  of  the  British  Empire,  pp.  7-30 
(Oxford  Manuals);  Traill,  IV.,  511-622,  V,  1-171;  John  Morley's 
Walpole  (251  pp..  50  cents). 

LITERARY 

Swift.  —  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  391-424, 
contains  representative  selections  from  Swift's  prose.  The  best  of 
these  are  The  Philosophy  of  Clothes,  from  A  Tale  of  a  Tub  (Craik, 
III.,  398)  ;  A  Digression  concerning  Critics,  from  the  same  (Craik, 
III.,  400)  ;  The  Emperor  of  Lillipnt  (Craik,  III.,  417),  and  The  King 
of  Brobdingnqg  (Craik,  III.,  419),  from  Gullivers  Travels. 

Is  Swift's  a  good  prose  style?  Does  he  use  ornament?  Can  you 
find  a  passage  where  he  strives  after  effect?  In  what  respects  do  the 
subjects  which  he  chooses  and  his  manner  of  treating  them  show  the 
spirit  of  the  age?  Why  is  Gulliver 's  Travels  so  popular?  What  are 
the  most  important  lessons  which  a  young  writer  may  learn  from 
Swift?  In  what  is  he  specially  lacking? 

Addison.  —  From  the  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers  the  student 
should  not  fail  to  read  Spectator  No.  112,  A  Country  Sunday.  He 
may  then  read  Spectator  No.  2,  by  Steele,  which  sketches  the  de  Cov- 
erley  characters,  and  compare  the  style  and  characteristics  of  the  two 
authors.  The  student  who  has  the  time  at  this  point  should  read  all 
the  de  Coverley  Papers  {Eclectic  English  Classics,  American  Book  Co.). 

What  are  the  excellences  and  defects  of  Addison's  style  ?  Why 
may  his  Essays  be  called  a  prelude  to  the  novel  of  life  and  manners? 
What  qualities  draw  so  many  readers  to  the  de  Coverley  Papers? 
Select  passages  which  will  serve  to  bring  into  sharp  contrast  the  style 
and  humor  of  Swift  and  of  Addison. 

Pope.  —  Read  The  Rape  of  the  Lock  (printed  with  the  Essay  on  Man 
in  Eclectic  English  Classics,  American  Book  Co.,  20  cents).  Selections 
from  this  are  given  in  Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  73-82. 

1  For  full  titles,  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 


READING   REFERENCES  26 1 

The  Essay  on  Man,  Book  I.  (Ward,  III.,  85-91)  will  serve  as  a 
specimen  of  his  didactic  verse.  The  Epistle  to  Dr.  Arbuthnot  (Ward, 
III.,  103-105)  will  illustrate  his  satire,  and  the  lines  from  the  Iliad 
in  Ward,  III.,  82,  will  show  the  characteristics  of  his  translation. 

How  does  Pope  show  the  spirit  of  the  classical  school  ?  What  are 
his  special  merits  and  defects?  Does  an  examination  of  his  poetry 
convince  you  that  Leslie  Stephen's  criticism  (p.  258)  is  right  ?  Select 
specimens  of  true  poetry  from  as  many  of  Pope's  predecessors  as  possi- 
ble. Place  beside  these  selections  some  of  Pope's  best  lines,  and  see 
if  you  have  a  clearer  idea  of  the  difference  between  rhetoric  and  true 
poetry. 

WORKS   FOR  CONSULTATION   AND   FURTHER   STUDY 
(OPTIONAL) 

Ashton's  Social  Life  in  the  Reign  of  Queen  Anne. 

Sydney's  England  and  the  English  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Centtiry. 

Stephen's  History  of  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Thackeray's  Henry  Esmond. 

Taine's  History  of  English  Literature,  Book  III.,  Chaps.  IV.  and  V. 

Gosse's  History  of  English  Literature  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Perry's  English  Literature  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature,  pp.  342-408. 

Clarke's  Study  of  English  Prose  Writers,  pp.  82-198. 

Dennis's  The  Age  of  Pope. 

Phillips's    Popular  Mamial  of  English    Literature,   Vol.    I.,   pp. 

437-564- 

Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  1-182. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  355-595. 

Thackeray's  English  Humorists. 

Stephen's  Life  of  Swift. 

Craik's  Life  of  Swift. 

Courthope's  Life  of  Addison. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Addison. 

Stephen's  Life  of  Pope. 

De  Quincey's  Essay  on  Pope,  and  On  the  Poetry  of  Pope. 

Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets. 

Gosse's  From  Shakespeare  to  Pope. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT. —  1"J 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  SECOND  FORTY  YEARS  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY, 

1740-1780 

An  Age  of  Changing  Standards.  —  The  second  forty 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century  are  more  remarkable  for 
the  foundations  which  they  laid  for  future  changes  than  for 
original  literary  productions.  Moral,  religious,  political,  and 
literary  standards  began  to  change.  There  was  more 
diversity  of  opinion  in  regard  to  all  these  subjects.  These 
years  were  a  flight  of  stairs  leading  up  to  the  romantic  age, 
and  to  the  entire  nineteenth  century. 

In  1742  Robert  Walpole's  long  term  as  prime  minister 
came  to  a  close.  His  political  code  contained  two  rules 
of  action:  (i)  to  secure  by  bribery,  whenever  necessary, 
the  adoption  of  his  measures,  and  (2)  never  to  attempt  to 
remedy  abuses  or  to  change  any  existing  state  of  affairs, 
unless  the  demand  for  such  change  was  too  strong  to  be 
resisted.  In  1757  William  Pitt  became,  in  effect,  prime 
minister  (though  not  so  in  name).  Walpole  had  tried  to 
bribe  him  in  various  ways  and  had  utterly  failed.  In 
politics,  Pitt  was  in  a  certain  sense  the  counterpart  of 
Wesley  in  religious  life.  Pitt  appealed  to  the  patriotism 
and  to  the  sense  of  honor  of  his  countrymen,  and  many 
heard  his  appeal.  Under  Walpole,  Great  Britain  was  a 
third-rate  insular  power;  under  Pitt,  she  became  one  of 
the  foremost  powers  of  the  world.  Between  1750  and 
1760,  Clive  was  making  Great  Britain  mistress  of  the  vast 
empire  of  India,  and  in  1759  Wolfe  shattered  the  power 

262 


CHANGE  IN   RELIGIOUS   INFLUENCE  263 

of  France  in  Canada.  England  was  expanding  to  the 
eastward  and  the  westward  and  taking  her  literature  with 
her.  As  Wolfe  advanced  on  Quebec,  he  was  reading 
Gray's  Elegy. 

Change  in  Religious  Influence.  —  The  church  had  become 
too  lukewarm  and  respectable  to  endeavor  to  bring  in  the 
masses,  and  they  saw  nothing  in  the  church  to  attract  them 
to  it.  When  religious  influence  was  at  the  lowest  ebb,  two 
eloquent  preachers,  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield, 
started  a  movement  which  is  still  gathering  force.  Although 
anything  like  enthusiasm  or  appeal  to  the  emotions  from 
the  pulpit  had  for  some  time  been  considered  in  bad  taste, 
Wesley  did  not  ask  his  audience  to  listen  to  a  sermon  on 
the  favorite  bloodless  abstractions  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury pulpit,  such  as  Charity,  Faith,  Duty,  Holiness,  abstrac- 
tions which  never  moved  a  human  being  an  inch  heaven- 
ward. His  sermons  were  emotional.  They  dealt  largely 
with  the  emotion  of  love,  God's  love  for  man.  He  did  not 
ask  his  listeners  to  engage  in  intellectual  disquisitions 
about  the  aspects  of  infinity.  He  did  not  talk  free-will 
metaphysics  or  trouble  his  hearers  with  a  satisfactory 
philosophical  account  of  the  origin  of  evil.  He  spoke 
about  things  which  reached  not  only  the  understanding 
but  also  the  feelings  of  plain  men. 

About  the  same  time,  Whitefield  was  preaching  to  the 
miners  near  Bristol.  Tears  streamed  down  the  cheeks  of 
these  rude  men  as  he  eloquently  told  them  the  story  of 
salvation,  and  made  many  resolve  to  lead  better  lives. 

This  religious  awakening  may  have  been  accompanied 
with  too  much  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  some  unhealthy 
emotional  excitement,  but  some  vigorous  movement  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  quicken  the  spiritual  life  of  such 
an  age. 


264  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

CHANGE  IN  LITERARY  STANDARDS  :    ROMANTICISM 

What  is  Romanticism  ? —  It  is  important  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  romantic  movement  in  order  to  com- 
prehend the  dominating  spirit  of  the  next  age.  The  years 
from  1740  to  1780  nowhere  show  romantic  literature  at 
the  height  of  its  excellence,  but  they  indicate  how  the 
foundations  of  the  movement  were  laid. 

The  best  short  definition  of  romanticism  is  that  of  Victor 
Hugo,  who  called  it  "  liberalism  in  literature."  Although 
this  definition  is  incomplete,  it  has  the  merit  of  cover- 
ing all  kinds  of  romantic  movements.  In  this  period  and 
the  far  more  glorious  one  that  followed,  romanticism  made 
its  influence  felt  for  the  better  in  four  different  ways.  An 
understanding  of  each  of  these  will  make  us  more  intelli- 
gent critics. 

In  the  first  .place,  the  romantic  spirit  is  opposed  to  the 
prosaic.  The  romantic  yearns  for  the  light  that  never  was 
on  sea  or  land  and  longs  to  attain  the  unfulfilled  ambitions 
of  the  soul,  even  when  these  in  full  measure  are  not  possible. 
Sometimes  these  ambitions  are  so  unrelated  to  the  possible 
that  .the  romantic  has  in  certain  usage  become  synonymous 
with  the  impractical  or  the  absurd,  but  this  is  not  its  mean- 
ing in  literature^  The  romantic  may  not  always  be  "  of 
imagination  all  compact,"  but  it  has  a  tendency  in  that 
direction.  A  reality  of  the  imagination  is  as  satisfying  to 
romanticists  as  a  reality  of  the  prosaic  reason,  hence  they, 
unlike  the  classicists,  can  enjoy  The  Tempest  and  A  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream.  The  events  in  these  plays  could 
not  have  been  objective  realities  in  an  actual  world,  but 
they  have  the  necessary  element  of  subjective  truth.  The 
imagination  is  the  only  power  that  can  grasp  the  unseen. 
Any  movements  which  stimulate  imaginative  activity  must 


WHAT  IS   ROMANTICISM?  265 

give  the  individual  more  points  of  contact  with  that  part 
of  the  world  that  does  not  obtrude  itself  on  the  physical 
senses,  and  especially  with  many  facts  of  existence  which 
cold  intellectual  activity  can  never  comprehend.  Hence, 
romanticism  leads  to  greater  breadth  of  view. 

In  the  second  place,  the  romantic  is  the  opposite  of  the 
hackneyed.  Hence,  too  much  repetition  may  take  a 
necessary  quality  away  from  what  was  once  considered 
romantic.  The  epithets  "ivory"  and  "raven,"  when 
applied  to  "brow"  and  to  "tresses,"  respectively,  were  at 
first  romantic,  but  much  repetition  has  deprived  them 
of  this  quality.  If  an  age  is  to  be  considered  romantic,  it 
must  look  at  things  from  a  point  of  view  somewhat  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  age  immediately  preceding.  This 
change  may  be  either  in  the  character  of  the  thought  or  in 
the  manner  of  its  presentation,  or  in  both.  An  example 
of  the  formal  element  of  change  which  appeared,  consists  in 
the  substitution  of  blank  verse  and  the  Spenserian  stanza 
for  the  classical  couplets  of  the  French  school.  In  the 
next  age,  we  shall  find  that  the  subject  matter  is  no  longer 
chiefly  of  the  satiric  or  the  didactic  type. 

In  the  third  place,  the  highest  type  of  romanticism 
must  contain  something  of  the  subjective  element  (see 
p.  130)  peculiar  to  the  individual.  This  often  appears  in 
the  ideals  that  we  fashion  and  in  our  characteristic  con- 
ceptions of  the  spiritual  significance  of  the  world  and 
its  deepest  realities.  Two  writers  of  this  period  by  invest- 
ing nature  with  a  spirit  of  melancholy  (see  p.  270)  illus- 
trate one  of  the  many  phases  which  this  subjective  element 
can  assume. 

In  the  fourth  place,  we  shall  see  that  the  romantic 
movement  tended  toward  deeper  feeling.  Sometimes  the 
movement  was  injured  and  subjected  to  caricature  by 


266  FROM  1740  TO  1780 

exhibitions  of  unbridled  and  ridiculous  passion.  Of 
course,  the  best  romantic  works  are  not  mere  seas  of 
rippling  sensibility  or  stormy  passion,  but  the  great 
romanticists  never  avoid  expressions  of  profound  feeling, 
like  the  love  of  Juliet  or  the  jealousy  of  Othello.  The 
classic  school  shunned  as  vulgar  all  exhibitions  of  en- 
thusiasm and  strong  emotion. 

The  Influence  of  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton. — The 
classicists  had  turned  away  from  the  great  English  authors 
and  had  gone  to  French  models  for  instruction  in  polish 
and  form.  Spenser  exerted  a  powerful  influence  on  the 
romanticists,  for  he  is  to  the  core  a  romantic  poet.  His 
far-off  forest  world  with  its  enchantment  of  bowers, 
streams,  glorious  maidens,  and  heroic  knights,  is  the 
very  fairyland  of  romance.  Before  1750  there  was  only 
one  eighteenth  century  edition  of  Spenser's  work  pub- 
lished in  England.  In  1758,  three  editions  of  the  Faerie 
Queene  appeared.  Spenser's  readers  and  imitators  were 
becoming  very  numerous. 

Much  of  the  mid-eighteenth  century  influence  of 
Shakespeare  came  from  the  masterly  performance  of 
his  plays  on  the  stage.  In  1741  the  great  actor  David 
Garrick  captivated  London  audiences  by  his  presentation 
of  Shakespeare's  dramas.  Before  Garrick  retired  in  1 776, 
he  had  produced  twenty-four  of  these  plays,  and  so  he 
brought  some  of  the  influences  of  the  romantic  Eliza- 
bethan age  to  bear  on  the  taste  of  eighteenth  century 
England.  The  presentation  of  Shakespeare  by  a  master 
like  Garrick  affected  the  imaginations  of  the  people  far 
more  vividly  than  a  mere  reading  of  the  plays.  We  have 
seen  that  the  classicists  did  not  like  the  "  monstrous 
irregularities  of  Shakespeare,"  but,  later  in  the  century, 
he  found  a  larger  and  more  delighted  audience.  No  age 


OSSIAN  267 

with  its  eye  on  Shakespeare  can  tolerate  a  literature 
without  romance  and  spirituality. 

Milton's  influence  for  romanticism  was  also  strong. 
At  first  thought,  it  may  seem  strange  that  a  poet  saturated 
as  he  was  with  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin  literature, 
should  have  such  influence,  but  his  Paradise  Lost  is  a 
work  of  the  creative  imagination,  and  the  subject  matter 
satisfies  the  romantic  requirement  in  being  strange  and 
instinct  with  strong  feeling.  His  minor  poetry,  especially 
his  //  Penseroso,  was  most  important  in  the  new  move- 
ment, although  the  blank  verse  of  Paradise  Lost  was 
often  adopted  as  a  welcome  relief  from  "the  rocking- 
horse  "  verse  of  the  rhyming  couplet. 

Ossian.  —  Between  1760  and  1764  James  Macpherson, 
a  Highland  schoolmaster,  published  a  series  of  poems, 
which  he  claimed  to  have  translated  from  an  old  manu- 
script, the  work  of  Ossian,  a  Gaelic  poet  of  the  third 
century.  These  may  have  been  forged  in  whole  or  in 
part,  but  the  question  of  their  genuineness  does  not  alter 
the  fact  that  they  powerfully  affected  the  romantic  move- 
ment. The  so-called  translation  of  the  poems  is  in  prose, 
and  it  won  for  Macpherson  a  grave  in  the  Poets'  Corner 
of  Westminster  Abbey. 

The  qualities  in  Ossian  which  appealed  to  the  age 
were  its  wildness,  its  vague  suggestions  to  the  imagina- 
tion, its  disregard  of  conventional  forms,  the  profusion 
of  its  rhetorical  figures,  and  the  deep  feeling  of  melan- 
choly. Gray  was  profoundly  impressed  with  the  strange 
work.  He  praised  highly  the  following  quotation  from 
it:  — 

"  Ghosts  ride  on  the  tempest  to-night ; 
Sweet  is  their  voice  between  the  gusts  of  wind ; 
Their  songs  are  of  other  worlds." 


268  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

Ossian  also  influenced  Byron.  Professor  W.  L.  Phelps 
found  Byron's  copy  of  Ossian  with  notes  and  comments 
in  Byron's  own  handwriting.  In  some  respects  Byron  con- 
sidered Ossian  equal  to  Homer.  But  the  Ossianic  poems 
have  not  stood  the  test  of  time.  They  are  mentioned  here 
only  because  they  were  so  pronounced  a  factor  in  ushering 
in  the  romantic  movement. 

Horace  Walpole  and  The  Castle  of  Otranto.  —  "  The  great 
resources  of   fancy  have   been    dammed  up,  by  a  strict 
adherence  to  common  life,"  said  Horace 
Walpole    (1717-1797),    one    of    the 
leaders  of  the  fashionable  world. 
He  gave  an  impulse  to  romanticism 
in  both  architecture  and  literature. 
There  had  been  as  much  classi- 
cism in  the  one  as  in  the  other. 
Even    fine   residences    were  built 
after  Grecian  models.     The  term 

HORACE  WALPOLE  "  Gothic  "  was  contemptuously  ap- 

plied  to  whatever  was  mediaeval  or 

out  of  date,  whether  in  art,  philosophy,  or  general  litera- 
ture. About  1750  he  erected  a  Gothic  residence,  which 
became  the  talk  of  fashionable  England  and  soon  found 
many  imitators.  People  began  to  study  mediaeval  architec- 
ture and  to  turn  their  attention  to  other  things  that  were 
old  as  well  as  good. 

In  1764  a  book  was  published,  entitled  The  Castle  of 
Otranto:  A  Gothic  Romance.  This  professed  to  be  a 
translation  from  an  old  black-letter  volume.  The  scene 
of  the  story  is  laid  in  a  Gothic  castle,  in  whose  mysteri- 
ous labyrinths  and  trap  doors  the  strangest  adventures 
occur.  The  weirdness  and  improbabilities  of  the  romance 
were  welcomed  by  readers  weary  of  the  prosaic  works 


THOMAS    PERCY  269 

that  had  been  so  unsparingly  produced.  No  name  was 
placed  on  the  title  page  of  the  first  edition.  Walpole 
was  afraid  of  being  sneered  at  for  breaking  the  classical 
rules  prescribing  conventional  regularity  and  probability. 
The  pronounced  success  of  the  story  soon  led  him  to 
acknowledge  the  authorship,  not,  however,  before  some 
had  ascribed  it  to  Thomas  Gray,  the  poet.  This  work 
gave  a  pronounced  impetus  to  ultra-romantic  tales.  Its 
influence  was  felt  across  the  Atlantic,  by  an  early  Ameri- 
can novelist,  Charles  Brockden  Brown  (1771-1810). 

Percy's  Reliques  and  Translation  of  Mallet's  Northern 
Antiquities.  —  In  1765  Thomas  Percy  (1729-1811)  pub- 
lished The  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  an  epoch- 
making  work  in  the  history  of  the  romantic  movement. 
The  Reliques  is  a  collection  of  old  English  ballads  and 
songs,  many  of  which  have  a  story  to  tell,  and  a  very 
romantic  one,  too.  Scott  drew  inspiration  from  them,  and 
Wordsworth  acknowledged  his  indebtedness  to  their  influ- 
ence. So  important  was  this  collection  that  it  has  been 
called  "the  Bible  of  the  Romantic  Reformation." 

In  1770  Percy's  translation  of  Mallet's  Northern  An- 
tiquities appeared.  For  the  first  time  the  English  world 
was  given  an  easily  accessible  volume  which  disclosed  the 
Norse  mythology  in  all  its  strength  and  weirdness.  Clas- 
sical mythology  had  become  hackneyed,  and  poets  like 
Gray  rejoiced  that  there  was  a  new  fountain  to  which  they 
could  turn.  Thor  and  his  invincible  hammer,  the  Frost 
Giants,  Bifrost  or  the  Rainbow  Bridge,  Odin,  th<J  Valkyries, 
Valhal,  the  sad  story  of  Baldur,  and  the  Twilight  of  the 
Gods,  have  appealed  strongly  to  a  race  which  takes  pride 
in  its  own  mythology,  to  a  race  which  to-day  loves  to  hear 
Wagner's  translation  of  these  myths  into  the  music  of 
Die  Walkure,  Siegfried,  and  Gb'tterdammerung. 


270  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

The  Literature  of  Melancholy.  —  The  choice  of  sub- 
jects in  which  the  emotion  of  melancholy  was  given  full 
sway  shows  one  direction  taken  by  the  romantic  move- 
ment. Here,  the  influence  of  Milton's  //  Penseroso  can 
often  be  traced.  The  exquisite  Ode  to  Evening,  by 
William  Collins  (1721-1759)  shows  the  love  for  nature's 
solitudes  where  this  emotion  may  be  nursed.  Lines 
like  these :  — 

"...  be  mine  the  hut, 
That,  from  the  mountain's  side, 
Views  wilds  and  swelling  floods, 
And  hamlets  brown,  and  dim-discovered  spires ; 
And  hears  their  simple  bell ;  and  marks  o'er  all 
Thy  dewy  fingers  draw 
The  gradual  dusky  veil," 

caused  Swinburne  to  say  :  "  Corot  on  canvas  might  have 
signed  his  Ode  to  Evening." 

The  high-water  mark  of  the  poetry 
of   melancholy   of   this  period  was 
reached  in   Thomas  Gray's  (1716- 
1771)  Elegy   -written  in   a   Country 
'Churchyard  (1751).     The  poet  with 
great  art  selected  those  natural 
phenomena  which  cast  additional 
gloom  upon  the  scene.   We  may 
notice   in    the  very  first  stanza 
that    the    images    were   chosen 
THOMAS  GRAY  with  this  end  in  view :  — 

"The  curfew  tolls  the  knell  of  parting  day, 
The  lowing  herd  winds  slowly  o'er  the  lea, 
The  plowman  homeward  plods  his  weary  way, 
And  leaves  the  world  to  darkness  and  to  me." 


THOMAS  GRAY 


271 


Then  we  listen  to  the  droning  flight  of  the  beetle,  to  the 

drowsy  tinklings  from  a  distant  fold,  to  the  moping  owl  in 

an    ivy-mantled 

tower.       Each 

natural     object, 

either     directly 

or   by   contrast, 

reflects  the  mood 

of  man.    Nature 

is  a  background 

for  the  display  of 

emotion.     Later 

poets  cultivated 

her  for  her  own 

beauties,  but  that 

time  had  not  yet 

arrived. 

Gosse  says  in 
his  L  ife  of  Gray  : 
"  The  Elegy  has 
exercised  an  in- 
fluence on  all 
the  poetry  of 
Europe,  from 
Denmark  to 

Italy,  from  France  to  Russia.  With  the  exception  of  cer- 
tain works  of  Byron  and  Shakespeare,  no  English  poem 
has  been  so  widely  admired  and  imitated-abroad." 

The  Conflict  between  Romanticism  and  Classicism.  —  The 
influences  of  this  period  were  not  entirely  in  the  direction 
of  romanticism.  Samuel  Johnson,  the  literary  dictator  of 
the  age,  was  unsparing  in  his  condemnation  of  the  move- 
ment. The  weight  of  his  opinion  kept  many,  romantic 


STOKE    POGES   CHURCHYARD    (GRAY'S    BURIAL    PLACE 
AND    SCENE    OF    HIS    ELEGY) 


272  FROM    1740  TO  1780 

tendencies  in  check.  Even  authors  like  Gray  were  afraid 
to  adopt  the  new  creed  in  its  entirety.  In  one  stanza  of 
his  Hymn  to  Adversity  we  find  four  capitalized  abstrac- 
tions, after  the  manner  of  the  classical  school :  Folly, 
Noise,  Laughter,  Prosperity ;  and  the  following  two  lay 
figures,  little  better  than  abstractions :  — 

"  The  summer  Friend,  the  flattering  Foe." 

These  abstractions  have  little  warmth  or  human  interest. 
After  Gray  had  studied  the  Norse  mythology,  we  find  him 
using  such  strong  expressions  as  "  Iron-sleet  of  arrowy 
shower."  Collins's  ode  on  The  Passions  contains  seven- 
teen personified  abstractions,  from  "  pale  Melancholy  "  to 
"  brown  Exercise." 

In  Oliver  Goldsmith  (1728-1774)  the  conflict  between 
romanticism  and  classicism  is  marked.  Goldsmith's  natu- 
ral taste  in  many  directions  preferred  the  romantic,  but 
the  influence  of  the  age  in  general,  and  of  Dr.  Johnson  in 
particular,  modified  this  preference  and  made  his  work  a 
mixture  of  both  the  romantic  and  the  classic.  Goldsmith 
wrote  his  two  great  poems,  The  Traveller  and  The  Deserted 
Village,  in  the  classical  couplet.  To  show  how  he  could 
combine  words  with  art,  Matthew  Arnold  quotes  from  The 
Traveller  the  line  :  — 

"  No  cheerful  murmurs  fluctuate  in  the  gale," 

and  says :  "  There  is  exactly  the  poetic  diction  of  our 
prose  century :  rhetorical,  ornate,  and,  poetically,  quite 
false.  Place  beside  it  a  line  of  genuine  poetry,  such  as 

the 

'In  cradle  of  the  rude  imperious  surge' 

of  Shakespeare ;  and  all  its  falseness  instantly  becomes 
apparent." 


ROMANTICISM   AND   CLASSICISM 


2/3 


On  the  other  hand,  one  could  not  ask  for  pictures 
lighted  up  with  finer  romantic  touches  than  those  of  the 
village  preacher  and  the  village  master  in  The  Deserted 
Village.  Every  cultivated  person  ought  to  experience  the 
luxury  of  knowing  those  by  heart.  Swinburne  happily 
says :  "  In  Goldsmith's  verse  there  is  a  priceless  and 
adorable  power  of  sweet  human  emotion."  This  is  warm 
enough  to  be  felt  in  spite  of  the  chilling  effects  of  classical 
influence.  The  hearty  humor  of  his  great  comedy,  She 
Stoops  to  Conquer,  would  satisfy  Victor  Hugo's  ideal  of 
"  liberalism  in  literature  "  (p.  264). 


2/4  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   MODERN  NOVEL 

The  conflict  between  these  two  schools  still  continues. 
Indeed,  there  are  many  people  who  still  think  that  any 
poetry  which  shows  polished  regularity  must  be  excellent. 
To  prove  this  statement,  we  have  only  to  turn  to  the 
magazines  and  glance  at  the  current  poetry,' which  often 
consists  of  words  rather  artificially  strung  together  without 
the  soul  of  feeling  or  of  thought. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  MODERN  NOVEL 

Story-telling  an  Old  Art.  —  It  is  true  that  the  modern 
novel  was  not  developed  until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  the  modern  novel  is  the  flower  of  a  plant 
which  had  been  growing  for  a  long  time.  Authentic 
history  does  not  take  us  back  to  the  time  when  human 
beings  were  not  solaced  by  stories.  We  are  to-day 
interested  in  tales  from  the  old  Aryan,  Grecian,  and  Norse 
mythologies.  As  we  read  the  adventures  of  Ulysses  with 
the  Cyclops  and  with  Circe,  we  are  charmed  with  the  tales 
which  Homer  tells.  The  Bible  contains  stories  of  marked 
interest.  The  church  often  put  the  lives  of  saints  in  the 
form  of  a  story.  It  is  primarily  the  business  of  the 
novelist  to  tell  a  story,  but  a  history  of  fiction  shows  that 
there  are  different  ways  in  which  to  tell  stories,  just  as 
a  study  of  art  from  early  times  discloses  differences  in 
the  ways  of  drawing  and  painting  human  figures. 

Mediaeval  Romances.  —  The  original  meaning  of  romance 
was  a  story  in  verse  in  some  one  of  the  Romance  languages. 
The  majority  of  the  early  romances  read  in  England  were 
of  French  origin.  There  were  four  cycles  of  French 
romance  especially  popular  in  England  before  Chaucer's 
time.  These  were  tales  of  the  remarkable  adventures 
of  King  Arthur  and  his  Knights,  Charlemagne  and  his 


MEDIAEVAL  ROMANCES  275 

Peers,  Alexander  the  Great,  and  the  heroes  at  the  siege 
of  Troy. 

An  account  of  the  adventures  of  a  knight,  as  he  rode 
about  in  his  armor,  often  made  interesting  reading. 
Writers  soon  began  to  imagine  adventures  for  him,  and 
the  literature  of  fiction  received  vast  additions  in  this 
way.  Chaucer's  Knightes  Tale  holds  the  place  of  honor 
in  his  magnificent  collection  of  stories. 

We  have  an  inventory  of  the  library  of  a  gentleman  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  (1461-1483).  About  one  half  of 
this  library  consisted  of  story-telling  literature.  Promi- 
nent in  this  class  were  two  of  Chaucer's  poetic  tales,  the 
celebrated  romance,  Guy,  Earl  of  Warwick,  Sir  Gawayne 
and  the  Green  Knight,  The  Death  of  King  Arthur,  a 
collection  of  extravagant  adventures  attributed  to  Richard 
the  Lion-hearted,  and  a  religious  allegory.  The  point  to 
be  noticed  is  that  for  several  hundred  years  the  favorite 
type  of  romance  consisted  of  tales  crowded  with  marvel- 
ous incidents,  in  which  giants,  fairies,  enchanters,  and 
all-powerful  knights  figure.  The  adventures  in  Sir 
Gawayne  and  the  Green  Knight  may  serve  to  illustrate 
the  characteristics  of  some  of  these  stories.  At  the  court 
of  King  Arthur,  Gawayne  cuts  off  the  Green  Knight's 
head.  The  decapitated  giant  picks  up  his  head  and  rides 
away,  challenging  his  foe  to  meet  him  a  year  hence  at  a 
certain  Green  Chapel.  Gawayne  presents  himself  at  the 
appointed  time  and  barely  resists  many  fatal  enchant- 
ments. Relying  on  the  protection  of  a  magic  belt,  he 
fights  the  Green  Knight.  It  is  well  to  notice  that  the 
wound  which  Gawayne  receives  is  the  result  of  deception 
which  he  practices.  The  moral  element  thus  introduced 
gives  dignity  to  the  story. 

The  knight  who  meets  with  all  kinds  of  adventures  and 


2/6  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  MODERN  NOVEL 

rescues  everybody,  is  admirably  burlesqued  in  the  Don 
Quixote  of  the  Spanish  author  Cervantes,  which  appeared 
at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  This  world- 
famous  romance  shows  by  its  ridicule  that  the  taste  for 
the  impossible  adventures  of  chivalry  was  beginning  to 
pall.  The  following  title  to  one  of  the  chapters  of  Don 
Quixote  is  sufficiently  suggestive:  "Chapter  LVIII. — 
Which  tells  how  Adventures  came  crowding  on  Don 
Quixote  in  Such  Numbers  that  they  gave  him  No  Breath- 
ing Time." 

The  Romances  of  the  Sixteenth  Century.  —  The  Eliza- 
bethan age  shows  an  advance  in  the  development  of  prose 
fiction.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  Lyly's  Euphues, 
in  which  he  strings  his  philosophy  and  curious  knowledge 
on  a  slight  thread  of  romance,  and  of  Sidney's  Arcadia, 
which  furnished  a  model  for  pastoral  romances. 

Two  of  the  novelists  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Robert 
Greene  (1560?-: 592)  and  Thomas  Lodge  (1558  ?-i625), 
helped  to  give  to  Shakespeare  the  plots  of  two  of  his 
plays.  Greene's  novel  Pandosto  suggested  the  plot  of 
The  Winter  s  Tale,  and  Lodge's  Rosalind  was  the  imme- 
diate source  of  the  plot  of  As  You  Like  It. 

Although  Greene  died  in  want  at  the  age  of  thirty-two, 
he  was  the  most  prolific  of  the  Elizabethan  novelists.  His 
most  popular  stories  deal  with  the  passion  of  love  as  well 
as  with  adventure.  He  was  also  the  pioneer  of  those 
realistic  novelists  who  go  among  the  slums  to  study  life  at 
first  hand.  Greene  made  a  careful  study  of  the  sharpers 
and  rascals  of  London  and  published  his  observations  in 
a  series  of  realistic  pamphlets. 

Thomas  Nash  (1567-1601)  was  the  one  who  introduced 
into  England  the  picaresque  novel  in  The  Unfortunate 
Traveller^  or  the  Life  of  Jacke  Wilton  (1594).  The 


DANIEL  DEFOE 

picaresque  novel  (Spanish,  picaro,  a  rogue)  is  a  story  of 
adventure  in  which  rascally  tricks  play  a  prominent  part. 
This  type  of  fiction  came  from  Spain  and  attained  great 
popularity  in  England.  Jacke  Wilton  is  page  to  a  noble 
house.  Many  of  his  sharp  tricks  were  doubtless  drawn 
from  real  life.  Nash  is  a  worthy  predecessor  of  Defoe 
in  narrating  adventures  which  seem  to  be  founded  on 
actual  life. 

Fiction  in  the  First  Part  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  - 
Although  there  were  in  the  seventeenth  century  the  power- 
ful religious  allegories  of  Bunyan  and  the  romances  of 
Mrs.  Behn,  yet  this  century  does  not  show  much  progress 
in  the  development  of  the  novel.  But  the  essay  of  life 
and  manners  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
presents  us  at  once  with  various  pigments  necessary  for 
the  palette  of  the  novelist.  Students  on  turning  to  the 
second  number  of  TJie  Spectator  will  find  sketches  of  six 
different  types  of  character  which  are  worthy  to  be  framed 
and  hung  in  a  permanent  gallery  of  English  fiction.  The 
portrait  of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  may  even  claim  one  of 
the  places  of  honor  on  the  walls. 

In  1719  Daniel  Defoe  (i66i?-i73i)  gave  to  the  world 
Robinson  Crusoe,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  tales  of  ad- 
venture ever  written.  There  has  never  appeared  another 
work  which  has  been  so  great  a  favorite  with  as  large  a 
number  of  boys. 

In  treatment  of  character  and  in  style,  Defoe  takes  a 
forward  step  in  the  development  of  fiction.  Robinson 
Crusoe  shows  the  way  in  which  circumstance  and  environ- 
ment react  on  character.  We  note  with  admiration  the 
logical  way  in  which  Crusoe  sets  to  work  to  solve  the  prob- 
lems of  his  environment  and  the  patience  which  he  displays 
in  overcoming  difficulties.  No  magic  belt  is  introduced  to 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT. l8 


2/8  DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE   MODERN   NOVEL 


aid  him.  Obstacles  merely  develop  additional  will  power 
to  surmount  them.  We  do  not,  however,  find  in  this  story 
the  development  and  progress  of  the  passion  of  love,  which 
is  the  chief  element  in  modern  novels. 

In  the  second  place,  Defoe  does  not  show  a  trace  of 
the  grandiloquence  of  chivalry.  The  overwrought  poetic 
fancies  of  the  Arcadia  never  appear  in  his  writings.  He 
has  no  superior  in  telling  a  plain  unvarnished  tale  about 
a  shipwrecked  mariner,  or  about  sharpers  and  cheats,  such 


ROMANCE   AND   MODERN   NOVEL  279 

as  figure  in  his  picaresque  stories  entitled  Moll  Flanders  and 
Colonel  Jack,  or  in  describing  with  minute  circumstantial 
detail  the  events  chronicled  in  his  fanciful  Journal  of  the 
Plague  Year. 

He  is  a  great  realist.  He  never  shunned  any  labor  in 
mastering  every  detail  necessary  to  make  his  narratives 
appear  absolutely  true.  Leslie  Stephen  rightly  calls  his 
stories  "  simple  history  minus  the  facts."  Swift  also  has 
something  of  this  quality,  as  we  may  note  in  his  Gulliver's 
Travels  (1726). 

Distinction  between  the  Romance  and  the  Modern  Novel.  — 
The  romances  and  tales  of  adventure  which  had  been  so 
long  in  vogue  differ  widely  from  the  modern  novel.  Many 
of  them  pay  but  little  attention  to  probability,  but  those 
which  do  not  offend  in  this  respect  generally  rely  on 
a  succession  of  stirring  incidents  to  secure  attention.  Nov- 
els showing  the  analytic  skill  of  Thackeray's  Vanity  Fair, 
or  the  development  of  character  in  George  Eliot's  Silas 
Marner,  would  have  been  little  read  in  competition  with 
the  stirring  tale  of  adventure,  if  they  had  appeared  before 
a  taste  for  them  had  been  developed  by  habits  of  trained 
observation  and  thought. 

We  may  broadly  differentiate  the  romance  from  the  mod- 
ern novel  by  saying  that  the  romance  primarily  deals  with 
incident  and  adventure  for  their  own  sake,  while  the  novel 
concerns  itself  with  these  only  in  so  far  as  they  are  neces- 
sary for  a  faithful  picture  of  life  or  for  showing  the  devel- 
opment of  character.  Again,  as  a  general  rule,  the  leading 
characters  of  the  romances  which  we  have  been  considering 
are  kings,  princesses,  knights,  or  members  of  the  nobility. 
The  ordinary  type  of  human  being,  the  type  that  does  the 
most  of  the  world's  work,  usually  either  occupies  an  insig- 
nificant position  or  is  held  up  to  scorn  in  the  romance. 


280 


FROM    1740  TO   1780 


For  the  first  time  the  eighteenth  century  novel  undertook 
to  do  for  humanity  what  the  Elizabethan  drama  had  already 
accomplished,  to  paint  all  human  life,  to  neglect  neither 
the  lord  nor  the  servant.  Pamela,  a  waiting  maid,  is  the 
heroine  of  the  first  eighteenth  century  novel,  while  the 
aristocratic  Sir  Charles  Grandison  is  the  hero  of  another 
tale.  The  romance,  the  ballad,  and  the  drama  had  all 
taught  the  novelist.  In  his  endeavor  to  draw  as  near  to 
human  life  as  the  great  dramatists  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  novelist  has  in  a  great  measure  supplanted  the  dram- 
atist, because  a  good  novel  can  entertain  one  at  home,  with- 
out the  necessity  for  living  actors  and  elaborate  scenery. 


/ 


1  />» ' 

'     '     *•!»    -^i»"'»l 


From  an  old  print. 

RICHARDSON'S    HOME    AT    NORTH    END,   HAMMERSMITH 

The  First  Great  English  Novelist.  —  Samuel  Richardson 
(1689-1761)  was  born  in  Derbyshire.  When  he  was  only 
thirteen  years  old  some  of  the  young  women  of  the  neigh- 
borhood unconsciously  began  to  train  him  for  a  novelist. 
They  employed  him  to  conduct  their  love  correspondence, 
and  they  were  well  satisfied  with  his  success.  This  early 
training  partly  accounts  for  the  fact  that  every  one  of 


SAMUEL  RICHARDSON 


28l 


his  novels  is  merely  a  collection  of  letters  written  by  the 
chief  characters  to  each  other  and  to  their  friends  to  narrate 
the  progress  of  events. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  went  to  London  and  learned  the 
printer's  trade,  which  he  followed  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 
When  he  was  about  fifty  years  old,  some  publishers  asked 
him  to  prepare  a  letter  writer  which  would  be  useful  to 
country  people  and  others  who  could  not  think  how  to 
express  themselves  with  a  pen.  The  idea  of  making  these 
letters  tell  a  connected  story  occurred  to  him.  The  result 
was  the  first  modern  novel,  Pamela,  published  in  four  vol- 


282  FROM  1740  TO  1780 

umes  in  1740.  This  was  followed  by  Clarissa  Harlowe,  in 
seven  volumes,  in  1 748,  and  this  by  Sir  Charles  Grandison, 
in  seven  volumes,  in  1753. 

The  affairs  in  the  lives  of  the  leading  characters  are  so 
minutely  dissected,  the  plot  is  evolved  so  slowly  and  in  a 
way  so  unlike  the  astonishing  bounds  of  the  old  romance, 
that  one  is  tempted  to  say,  before  starting  the  seventh  vol- 
ume of  Clarissa  Harlowe,  that  Richardson's  novels  pro- 
gress more  slowly  than  events  in  life.  One 'secret  of  his 
success  depends  on  the  fact  that  we  feel  that  he  is  deeply 
interested  in  all  his  characters.  He  is  as  much  inter- 
ested in  the  heroine  of  his  masterpiece,  Clarissa  Harlowe, 
as  if  she  were  his  own  daughter.  He  has  the  remarkable 
power  of  so  thoroughly  identifying  himself  with  his  vari- 
ous characters  that,  after  we  are  thoroughly  introduced  to 
them,  we  can  name  them  when  we  hear  selections  read 
from  their  letters. 

The  length  and  slow  development  of  his  novels  repel 
modern  readers,  but  there  was  so  little  genuinely  interesting 
matter  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  many 
were  sorry  his  novels  were  no  longer.  The  novelty  of  pro- 
ductions of  this  type  also  added  to  their  interest.  His 
many  faults  are  largely  those  of  his  age.  He  wearies  his 
readers  with  his  didactic  aims.  He  is  narrow  and  prosy. 
He  poses  as  a  great  moralist,  but  he  teaches  the  morality 
of  direct  utility. 

Richardson  may  be  called  the  inventor  of  the  modern 
novel  in  the  same  way  that  a  man  is  said  to  be  the  inventor 
of  a  new  machine.  The  inventor  does  not  discover  the  prin- 
ciples of  leverage.  He  is  not  the  original  finder  of  the 
metals  necessary  for  construction.  He  merely  takes,  com- 
bines, and  applies  in  a  new  way  certain  things  which  others 
have  discovered.  Such  a  man  is  rightly  called  an  inventor. 


HENRY   FIELDING 


283 


He  introduces  the  world  to  something  new.  Some  one 
else  may  immediately  improve  his  invention.  This  was 
the  case  with  the  novel,  but  this  improvement  could  not 
have  been  made  unless  some  one  had  taken  the  first  step, 
and  furnished  something  for  improvement. 

Henry  Fielding,  1707-1754. — The  greatest  novelist 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  one  of  the  greatest  that 
England  ever  produced,  was  born  in  Sharpham  Park,  Som- 


284  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

ersetshire.  After  graduating  at  the  University  of  Leyden, 
he  became  a  play  writer,  a  lawyer,  a  judge  of  a  police  court, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  a  novelist,  or  an  historian  of 
society,  as  he  preferred  to  style  himself. 

When  Richardson's  Pamela  appeared,  Fielding  deter- 
mined to  write  a  story  caricaturing  its  morality  and  senti- 
ment, which  seemed  hypocritical  to  him.  Before  he  had 
gone  very  far  he  discovered  where  his  abilities  lay,  and, 
abandoning  his  narrow,  satiric  aims,  he  wrote  Joseph 
Andrews  (1742),  a  novel  far  more  interesting  than  Pamela. 
In  1749  he  published  his  masterpiece,  Tom  Jones,  and  in 
1751  his  third  and  last  novel,  Amelia. 

Fielding's  novels  show  several  points  of  improvement 
over  Richardson's.  In  the  first  place,  every  one  of  Field- 
ing's novels  displays  a  remarkable  sense  of  humor. 
Richardson  has  no  humor,  and  no  man  can  enter  the  very 
first  rank  of  novelists  without  this  quality. 

In  the  second  place,  Fielding  is  a  master  of  plot.  From 
all  literature  Coleridge  selected  for  perfection  of  plot, 
The  Alchemist,  CEdipus  Tyrannus,  and  Tom  Jones. 

In  the  third  place,  Fielding  writes  with  his  eye  sharply 
fixed  on  the  world.  The  most  of  his  characters  seem  alive 
and  vigorous.  Richardson's  Sir  Charles  Grandison  is  an 
impossible  conglomeration  of  abstract  virtues.  Richardson 
is  more  subjective  and  his  own  personality  is  much  in 
evidence  in  most  of  his  characters.  Except  in  the  cases 
of  Tom  Jones  and  Captain  Booth,  who  are  Fielding  him- 
self, Fielding  appears  to  be  listening  with  considerable 
curiosity  to  the  conversations  of  his  characters,  and  won- 
dering what  they  will  do  next. 

Fielding  shows  the  eighteenth  century  love  of  satire.  He 
hates  that  hypocrisy  which  tries  to  conceal  itself  under  a 
mask  of  morality.  In  the  evolution  of  the  plots  of  his 


STERNE  AND   SMOLLETT  285 

novels,  he  invariably  puts  such  characters  in  positions  which 
tear  away  their  mask.  He  displays  almost  savage  pleasure 
in  making  them  ridiculous.  Perhaps  the  lack  of  spiritual- 
ity of  the  age  finds  the  most  ample  expression  in  his  pages, 
but  the  finest  creations  of  both  Chaucer  and  Fielding,  the 
Parish  Priest  of  the  Prologue  (p.  79)  and  Parson  Adams  of 
Joseph  Andrews,  are  typical  of  those  persisting  moral  forces 
which  have  bequeathed  a  heritage  of  power  to  England. 

Sterne  and  Smollett.  —  With  Richardson  and   Fielding 
it  is  customary  to  associate  two  other  mid-eighteenth  cen- 
tury novelists,  Laurence  Sterne  (1713- 
1768)  and  Tobias  Smollett  (1721- 
1771).     Between  1759  and  1767 
Sterne  wrote  his  first  novel,  The 
Life  and  Opinions  of  Tristram 
Shandy,  Gentleman,  which  pre- 
sents the  delightfully  comic  and 
eccentric  members  of  the  Shandy 
family,     among     whom     Uncle 
Toby   is   the    masterpiece.      In 
1768  Sterne  gave  to  the  world  LAURENCE  STERNE 

that  compound  of  fiction,  essays, 

and  sketches  of  travel  known  as  A  Sentimental  Journey 
through  France  and  Italy.  The  adjective  "  sentimental  " 
in  the  title  should  be  specially  noted,  for  it  defines  Sterne's 
attitude  toward  everything  in  life.  He  is  habitually  sen- 
timental in  treating  not  only  those  things  fitted  to  awaken 
deep  emotion,  but  also  those  trivial  incidents  which 
ordinarily  cause  scarcely  a  ripple  of  feeling.  Although 
he  is  sometimes  a  master  of  pathos,  he  frequently  gives 
an  exhibition  of  weak  and  forced  sentimentalism.  He 
more  uniformly  excels  in  subtle  humor,  which  is  his  next 
most  conspicuous  characteristic. 


286  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

Roderick  Random  (1748),  Peregrine  Pickle  (1751),  and 
The  Expedition  of  Humphrey  Clinker  (1771)  are  Smollett's 
best  novels.    They  are  composed  mainly 
of  a  succession  of  stirring  or  humorous 
incidents.    In  relying  for  interest  more 
on  adventure  than  on  the  drawing 
of  character,  he  reverts  to  the  pic- 
aresque (see  p.  277)  type  of  story. 
The    Relation    of    Richardson, 
Fielding,  Sterne,  and  Smollett  to 
Subsequent   Fiction.  —  Although 
the  modern  reader  frequently  com- 

TOBIAS   SMOLLETT  ? 

plains  that  these  older  novelists 

often  seem  heavy,  slow  in  movement,  unrefined,  and  too 
ready  to  draw  a  moral  or  preach  a  sermon,  yet  these  four 
men  hold  an  important  place  in  the  history  of  fiction. 
With  varying  degrees  of  excellence,  Richardson,  Fielding, 
and  Sterne  all  have  the  rare  power  of  portraying  character 
from  within,  of  interpreting  real  life.  Some  novelists 
resort  to  the  far  easier  task  of  painting  merely  external 
characteristics  and  mannerisms.  Smollett  belongs  to  the 
latter  class.  He  is  so  effective  at  focusing  external  pecul- 
iarities and  caricaturing  exceptional  individuals,  that  his 
influence  has  been  far-reaching.  It  may  be  traced  in  the 
work  of  so  great  a  novelist  as  Charles  Dickens.  On 
the  other  hand,  Thackeray  learned  much  from  Fielding, 
and  this  great  Victorian  novelist  has  recorded  in  The 
English  Humorists  his  admiration  for  his  earlier  fellow- 
craftsman. 

Although  subsequent  English  fiction  has  invaded  many 
new  fields,  although  it  has  entered  the  domain  of  history 
and  of  sociology,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  later  novel- 
ists have  advanced  on  the  general  lines  marked  out  by 


THE  VICAR   OF   WAKEFIELD  287 

these  four  mid-eighteenth  century  pioneers.  We  may 
even  affirm  with  Gosse  that  "the  type  of  novel  invented 
in 'England  about  1740-50  continued  for  sixty  or  sev- 
enty years  to  be  the  only  model  for  Continental  fiction; 
and  criticism  has  traced  on  every  French  novelist,  in  par- 
ticular, the  stamp  of  Richardson,  if  not  of  Sterne  and 
Fielding." 

The  Vicar  of  Wakefield.  —  In  1766,  there  was  published 
a  delightful  romantic  novel,  of  which  Oliver  Goldsmith,  its 
author,  said :  "  There  are  an  hundred  faults  in  this  thing, 
and  an  hundred  things  might  be  said  to  prove  them  beau- 
ties. But  it  is  needless.  A  book  may  be  amusing  with 
numerous  errors,  or  it  may  be  very  dull  without  a  single 
absurdity."  This  is  sound  criticism.  The  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field  has  faults,  but  it  is  amusing  enough  to  be  immortal 
in  spite  of  them.  The  plot  shows  that  Goldsmith  did  not 
have  Fielding's  constructive  genius.  In  fact,  the  plot  is  so 
poorly  constructed  that  the  novel  would  have  been  almost 
a  failure,  had  other  qualities  not  insured  success.  But 
the  story  is  such  a  compound  of  sweet  human  emotion 
and  rare  humor  that  we  overlook  some  defects  in  the 
framework. 

The  Vicar,  who  is  the  hero  of  the  story,  is  a  country 
clergyman.  We  have  delightfully  entertaining  pictures  of 
his  virtues  and  failings.  We  are  interested  in  his  domestic 
life,  in  his  wife,  his  credulous  son  Moses,  his  good  but 
somewhat  aspiring  daughters,  and  his  happy  little  ones. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  enumerate  all  the  reasons  which 
have  made  the  tale  such  a  favorite,  but  the  chief  are  its 
inimitable  humor,  the  grace  and  ease  of  the  style,  the  ex- 
cellent way  in  which  some  of  the  characters  draw  their 
own  portraits,  and  the  air  of  naturalness  and  good  nature 
diffused  throughout  the  work. 


288  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

PHILOSOPHICAL,  HISTORICAL,  AND  POLITICAL  PROSE 

Philosophy.  — Although  the  majority  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury writers  disliked  speculative  thought  and  resolutely 
turned  away  from  it,  yet  the  age  produced  some  remark- 
able philosophical  works,  which  are  still  discussed,  and 
which  have  powerfully  affected  nineteenth  century  thought. 
David  Hume  (1711-1776)  is  the  greatest  metaphysician 
of  the  century.  He  took  for  his  starting  point  the  con- 
clusions of  a  contemporary  philosopher,  George  Berkeley 

(1685-1753)- 

Berkeley  had  said  that  ideas  are  the  only  real  existing 
entities,  that  matter  is  merely  another  term  for  the  ideas 
in  the  Mind  of  the  Infinite,  and  that  matter  has  no  exist- 
ence outside  of  mind.  He  maintained  that  if  every  quality 
should  be  taken  away  from  matter,  no  matter  would  remain  ; 
e.g.,  if  color,  sweetness,  sourness,  form,  and  all  other  quali- 
ties, should  be  taken  away  from  an  apple,  there  would  be 
no  apple.  Now,  a  quality  is  a  mental  representation  based 
on  a  sensation,  and  this  quality  varies  as  the  sensation 
varies  ;  in  other  words,  the  object  is  not  a  stable  immutable 
something.  It  is  only  a  something  as  I  perceive  it. 
Berkeley's  idealistic  position  was  taken  to  crush  atheistic 
materialism. 

Hume  took  Berkeley's  position  and  attempted  to  rear 
on  it  an  impregnable  citadel  of  skepticism.  He  accepted 
Berkeley's  conclusion  that  we  know  nothing  of  matter, 
and  then  attempted  to  show  that  inferences  based  on  ideas 
might  be  equally  illusory.  Hume  attacked  the  validity 
of  the  reasoning  process  itself.  He  endeavored  to  show 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  cause  and  effect  in  either 
the  mental  or  the  material  world. 

Hume's  Treatise  of  Hitman  Nature  ( 1 739- 1 740) ,  in  which 


PHILOSOPHICAL   AND    HISTORICAL   PROSE  289 

these  views  are  stated,  is  one  of  the  world's  epoch-making 
works  in  philosophy.  Its  conclusion  startled  the  great 
German  metaphysician  Kant  and  roused  him  to  action. 
The  questions  thus  raised  by  Hume  have  never  been 
answered  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  philosophers. 

Hume's  skepticism  is  the  most  thoroughgoing  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  for  he  attacks  the  certainty  of  our 
knowledge  of  both  mind  and  matter.  But  he  dryly  re- 
marks that  his  own  doubts  disappear  when  he  leaves  his 
study.  He  avoids  a  runaway  horse  and  inquires  of  a  friend 
the  way  to  a  certain  house  in  Edinburgh,  relying  as  much 
on  the  evidence  of  his  eyes  and  on  the  directions  of  his 
friend,  as  if  these  philosophic  doubts  had  never  been  raised. 

Historical  Prose.  —  In  carefully  elaborated  and  highly 
finished  works  of  history,  the  eighteenth  century  surpasses 
its  predecessors.  The  History  of  England^  David  Hume, 
the  philosopher,  is  the  first  work  of  the  kind  to  add  to  the 
history  of  politics  and  the  affairs  of  state  an  account  of  the 
people  and  their  manners.  His  History  is  distinguished 
for  its  polished  ease  and  clearness.  Unfortunately,  his 
work  is  written  from  a  partisan  point  of  view.  Hume  was 
a  Tory,  and  took  the  side  of  the  Stuarts  against  the  Puri- 
tans. He  sometimes  misrepresents  facts  if  they  do  not 
uphold  his  views.  His  History  is  consequently  read  more 
to-day  as  a  literary  classic  than  as  an  authority. 

Edward  Gibbon  (1/37-1794)  is  the  greatest  historian  of 
the  century.  His  monumental  work,  The -History  of  the 
Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  six  volumes,  be- 
gins with  the  reign  of  Trajan,  A.D.  98,  and  closes  with  the 
fall  of  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire  at  Constantinople  in 
1453.  Gibbon  constructed  a  "  Roman  road "  through 
nearly  fourteen  centuries  of  history,  and  he  built  it  so  well 
that  another  on  the  same  plan  has  not  yet  been  found 


FROM    1740  TO   1780 


necessary.  E.  A.  Freeman  says:  "  He  remains  the  one  his- 
torian of  the  eighteenth  century  whom  modern  research 
has  neither  set  aside  nor  threatened  to  set  aside."  In  pre- 
paring his  History,  Gibbon  spent  fifteen  years.  Every 
chapter  was  the  subject  of  long-continued  study  and  care- 
ful original  research.  From  the  chaotic  materials  which 
he  found,  he  constructed  a  history  remarkable  as  well  for 
scholarly  precision  as  for  the  vastness  of  the  field  covered. 
His  sentences  follow  one  another  in  magnificent  proces- 


POLITICAL   PROSE  291 

sion.  One  feels  that  they  are  the  work  of  an  artist.  They 
are  thickly  sprinkled  with  fine-sounding  words  derived 
from  the  Latin.  The  1611  version  of  the  first  four  chap- 
ters of  the  Gospel  of  John  averages  96  per  cent  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  words,  and  Shakespeare  89  per  cent,  while  Gibbon's 
average  of  70  per  cent  is  the  lowest  of  any  great  writer. 
He  has  all  the  coldness  of  the  classical  school,  and  he 
shows  but  little  sympathy  with  the  great  human  struggles 
described  in  his  pages.  He  has  been  well  styled  "  a  skill- 
ful anatomical  demonstrator  of  the  dead  framework  of 
society."  With  all  its  excellences,  his  work  has,  therefore, 
those  faults  which  are  typical  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Political  Prose.  —  Edmund  Burke  (1729-1797)  was  a  dis- 
tinguished statesman  and  member  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  an  important  era  of  English  history  —  a  time 
when  the  question  of  the  independence  of  the  American 
colonies  was  paramount,  and  when  the  spirit  of  revolt 
against  established  forms  was  in  the  air.  He  is  the 
greatest  political  writer  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Burke's  best  productions  are  SpeecJi  on  American  Taxa- 
tion (1774)  and  Speech  on  Conciliation  witJi  America  (I'jj^). 
His  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France  is  also  note- 
worthy. His  prose  marks  a  great  advance  in  the  follow- 
ing directions:  (i)  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  masters  of 
metaphor  and  imagery  in  English  prose.  Only  Carlyle 
(p.  415)  surpasses  him  in  the  use  of  metaphorical  language. 
(2)  Burke's  breadth  of  thought  and  wealth  of  expression 
enable  him  to  present  an  idea  from  many  different  points 
of  view,  so  that  if  his  readers  do  not  comprehend  his  expo- 
sition from  one  side,  they  may  from  another.  He  endeavors 
to  attach  what  he  says  to  something  in  the  experience  of 
his  hearers  or  readers ;  and  he  remembers  that  the 
experience  of  all  is  not  the  same.  (3)  As  a  corollary  of 


292 


FROM    1740  TO   1780 


the  preceding,  it  follows  that  his  imagery  and  figures  lay 
all  kinds  of  knowledge  under  contribution.  At  one  time 
he  draws  an  illustration  from  manufacturing ;  at  another, 
from  history ;  at  another,  from  the  butcher  shop.  (4)  His 
work  displays  intense  earnestness,  love  of  truth,  strength 
of  logical  reasoning,  vividness  of  imagination,  and  breadth 
of  view,  all  of  which  are  necessary  qualities  in  prose  which 
is  to  mold  the  opinions  of  men. 

It  is  well  to  note  that  Burke's  careful  study  of  English 
literature  contributed  largely  to  his  success   as  a  writer. 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON  293 

His  use  of  Bible  phraseology  and  his  familiarity  with 
poetry  led  a  critic  to  say  that  any  one  "  neglects  the  most 
valuable  repository  of  rhetoric  in  the  English  language, 
who  has  not  well  studied  the  English  Bible.  .  .  .  The 
cadence  of  Burke's  sentences  always  reminds  us  that 
prose  writing  is  only  to  be  perfected  by  a  thorough  study 
of  the  poetry  of  the  language." 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON,   1709-1784 

Early  Struggles.  —  Michael  Johnson,  an  intelligent  book- 
seller in  Lichfield,  Staffordshire,  was  in  1 709  blessed  with 
a  son  who  was  to  occupy  a  unique  position  in  literature, 
a  position  gained  not  so  much  by  his  written  as  by  his 
spoken  words  and  great  personality. 

Samuel  was  prepared  for  Oxford  at  various  schools 
and  in  the  paternal  bookstore,  where  he  read  widely  and 
voraciously,  but  without  much  system.  He  said  that  at 
the  age  of  eighteen,  the  year  before  he  entered  Oxford, 
he  knew  almost  as  much  as  at  fifty-three.  Poverty  kept 
him  from  remaining  at  Oxford  long  enough  to  take  a 
degree.  He  left  the  university,  and,  for  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century,  he  struggled  doggedly  against  poverty. 
When  he  was  twenty-five,  he  married  a  widow  of  forty- 
eight.  With  the  money  which  she  brought  him,  he  opened 
a  private  school,  but  failed.  He  never  had  more  than 
eight  pupils,  one  of  whom  was  David  Garrick  (p.  266). 

In  1737  Johnson  went  to  London  and  sought  employ- 
ment as  a  hack  writer.  Sometimes  he  had  no  money  with 
which  to  hire  a  lodging,  and  was  compelled  to  walk  the 
streets  all  night  to  keep  warm.  Johnson  reached  London 
in  the  very  darkest  days  for  struggling  authors.  They 
often  slept  on  ash  heaps,  and  begged  something  for  a 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  19 


294 


FROM   1740  TO   1780 


meal.  They  were  the  objects  of  a  general  contempt, 
to  which  Pope's  Dunciad  had  largely  contributed. 

During  this  period  Johnson  did  much  hack  work  for 
the  Gentleman  s  Magazine.  He  was  also  the  author  of 
two  satirical  poems,  London  (1738)  and  The  Vanity  of 
Human  Wishes  (1749),  "which  won  much  praise. 

Later  Years.  —  By  the  time  he  had  been  for  ten  years 
in  London,  his  abilities  were  sufficiently  well  known  to 
the  leading  booksellers  for  them  to  hire  him  to  compile 
a  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language  for  £i$?S-  He 
was  seven  years  at  this  work,  finishing  it  in  1755. 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON  295 

Between  1750  and  1760  he  wrote  the  matter  for  two 
periodicals,  The  Rambler  (1750-1752)  and  The  Idler  (\"j^- 
1760),  which  contain  papers  on  manners  and  morals.  He 
intended  to  model  these  papers  on  the  lines  of  The  Tatler 
and  The  Spectator,  but  his  essays  are  for  the  most  part 
ponderously  dull  and  uninteresting. 

In  1762,  for  the  first  time,  he  was  really  an  independent 
man,  for  then  George  III.  gave  him  a  life  pension  of  ^300 
a  year.  Even  as  late  as  1759,  in  order  to  pay  his  mother's 
funeral  expenses,  Johnson  had  been  obliged  to  dash  off  the 
romance  of  Rasselas  in  a  week,  but  from  the  time  he  re- 
ceived his  pension,  he  had  leisure  "to  cross  his  legs  and 
have  his  talk  out "  in  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
gatherings  of  the  eighteenth  century.  During  the  rest  of 
his  life  he  produced  little  besides  The  Lives  of  the  Poets, 
which  is  his  most,  important  contribution  to  literature.  In 
1784  he  died,  and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
among  the  poets  whose  lives  he  had  written. 

A  Man  of  Character.  —  Any  one  who  will  read  Macau- 
lay's  Life  of  Johnson1  may  become  acquainted  with  some 
of  Johnson's  most  striking  peculiarities,  but  these  do  not 
constitute  his  claims  to  greatness.  He  had  qualities  that 
made  him  great  in  spite  of  his  peculiarities.  He  knocked 
down  a  publisher  who  insulted  him,  and  he  would  never 
take  insolence  from  a  superior,  but  there  is  no  case  on 
record  of  his  ever  having  been  unkind  to  an  inferior. 
Goldsmith  said  :  "  Johnson  has  nothing  of  a  bear  but  the 
skin."  When  some  one  manifested  surprise  that  Johnson 
should  have  assisted  a  worthless  character,  Goldsmith 
promptly  replied :  "  He  has  now  become  miserable,  and 
that  insures  the  protection  of  Johnson." 

1  To  be  found  in  Encyclopedia  Briiannica,  Vol.  XIII.,  or  in  Macaulay's 
collected  Essays. 


296 


FROM   1740  TO   1780 


When  Johnson  came  home  late  at  night,  he  would  some- 
times see  homeless  street  Arabs  asleep    on    a   doorstep. 

In  order  that  they  might 
find  something  for 
breakfast  when 
they  awoke,  he 
would  frequent- 
ly slip  a  coin 
into  their  hands. 
He  spent  the 
greater  part  of 
his  pension  on 
the  helpless,  sev- 
eral of  whom  he 
received  into  his 
own  house. 

There  have 
been  many 
broader  and 
more  scholarly 
Englishmen, 
but  there  never 
walked  the  streets  of  London  a  man  who  battled  more 
courageously  for  what  he  thought  was  right.  The  more 
we  know  of  him,  the  more  certain  are  we  to  agree  with 
this  closing  sentence  from  Macaulay's  Life  of  Johnson: 
"  And  it  is  but  just  to  say  that  our  intimate  acquaintance 
with  what  he  would  himself  have  called  the  anfractuosities 
of  his  intellect  and  of  his  temper  serves  only  to  strengthen 
our  conviction  that  he  was  both  a  great  and  a  good  man." 
A  Great  Converser  and  Literary  Lawgiver.  —  By  nature 
Johnson  was  fitted  to  be  a  talker.  He  was  happiest  when 
he  had  intelligent  listeners.  Accordingly,  he  and  Sir 


From  an  old  print. 

SAMUEL    JOHNSON'S    BIRTHPLACE 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON 


297 


Joshua  Reynolds,  the  artist,  founded  the  famous  Literary 
Club  in  1764.  During  Johnson's  lifetime  this  had  for 
members  such  men  as  Edmund  Burke,  Oliver  Goldsmith, 
Charles  James  Fox,  James  Boswell,  Edward  Gibbon,  and 
David  Garrick.  Macaulay  says :  "  The  verdicts  pro- 
nounced by  this  conclave  on  new  books  were  speedily 
known  all  over  London,  and  were  sufficient  to  sell  off  a 
whole  edition  in  a  day,  or  to  condemn  the  sheets  to  the 
service  of  the  trunk  maker  and  the  pastry  cook.  ...  To 
predominate  over  such  a  society  was  not  easy ;  yet  even 
over  such  a  society  Johnson  predominated." 

He  was  consulted  as  an  oracle  on  all  kinds  of  subjects, 
and  his  replies  were  generally  the 
pith  of  common  sense.    So  famous 
had  Johnson  become  for  his  con- 
versations, that  George  III.  met 
him  on  purpose  to  hear  him  talk. 
A  committee  from  forty  of  the 
leading     London     booksellers 
waited  on  Johnson  to  ask  him 
to  write  the  Lives  of  the  Poets. 
There  was  then  in  England  no 
other  man  with  so  much  influ- 
ence in  the  world  of  literature. 

Bos  well's  Life  of  Johnson.  - 
In  1763  James  Boswell  ( 1740- 
T795)>  a  Scotchman,  met  Johnson  and  devoted  much 
time  to  copying  the  words  that  fell  from  the  great 
Doctor's  lips  and  to  noting  his  individual  traits.  We  must 
go  to  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson,  the  greatest  of  all  biog- 
raphies, to  read  of  Johnson  as  he  lived  and  talked ;  in 
short,  to  learn  those  facts  which  render  him  far  more 
famous  than  his  written  works. 


JAMES    BOSWELL 


298  FROM   1740  TO  1780 

Leslie  Stephen  says :  "  I  would  still  hope  that  to  many  * 
readers  Boswell  has  been  what  he  has  certainly  been  to 
some,  the  first  writer  who  gave  them  a  love  of  English 
literature,  and  the  most  charming  of  all  companions  long 
after  the  bloom  of  novelty  has  departed.  I  subscribe  most 
cheerfully  to  Mr.  Lewes's  statement  that  he  estimates  his 
acquaintances  according  to  their  estimate  of  Boswell." 

A  Champion  of  the  Classical  School.  —  Johnson  was  a 
powerful  adherent  of  classicism,  and  he  did  much  to  defer 
the  coming  of  romanticism.  His  poetry  is  formal,  and  it 
shows  the  classical  fondness  for  satire  and  aversion  to 
sentiment.  The  first  two  lines  of  his  greatest  poem,  The 
Vanity  of  Human  Wishes,  — 

.  "  Let  observation  with  extensive  view 
Survey  mankind  from  China  to  Peru," 

show  the  classical  couplet,  which  he  employs,  and  they 
afford  an  example  of  poetry  produced  by  a  sonorous  com- 
bination of  words.  "  Observation,"  "  view,"  and  "  survey  " 
are  nearly  synonymous  terms.  Such  conscious  effort 
centered  on  word  building  subtracts  something  from  poetic 
feeling. 

His  critical  opinions  of  literature  manifest  his  prefer- 
ence for  classical  themes  and  formal  modes  of  treatment. 
He  says  of  Shakespeare  :  "  It  is  incident  to  him  to  be  now 
and  then  entangled  with  an  unwieldy  sentiment,  which  he 
cannot  well  express  .  .  .  the  equality  of  words  to  things 
is  very  often  neglected." 

In  The  Lives  of  the  Poets,  Johnson  writes  thus  of 
Milton's  great  elegy :  "  One  of  the  poems  on  which  much 
praise  has  been  bestowed  is  Lycidas ;  of  which  the  diction 
is  harsh,  the  rhymes  uncertain,  and  numbers  unpleasing. 
...  Its  form  is  that  of  a  pastoral,  easy,  vulgar,  and  there- 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON  299 

fore  disgusting."  Johnson  felt  positive  repugnance  to 
Milton's  flocks  and  shepherds  going  forth 

"  Under  the  opening  eyelids  of  the  Morn," 

amid  the  cowslips  wan,  the  primroses  dying  forsaken,  and 
the  daffodils  with  tear-filled  cups.  Johnson  preferred  the 
streets  of  London  to  the  finest  spring  landscape. 

General  Characteristics.  —  While  he  is  best  known  in 
literary  history  as  the  great  converser  whose  full-length 
portrait  is  drawn  by  Boswell,  Johnson  left  the  marks 
of  his  influence  on  much  of  the  prose  written  within  nearly 
a  hundred  years  after  his  death.  On  the  whole,  this  in- 
fluence has,  for  the  following  reasons,  been  bad. 

First,  he  loved  a  ponderous  style  in  which  there  was 
an  excess  of  the  Latin  element.  He  liked  to  have  his 
statements  sound  well.  He  once  said  in  forcible  Saxon  : 
"  The  Rehearsal  has  not  wit  enough  to  keep  it  sweet," 
but  a  moment  later  he  translated  this  into  :  "  It  has  not 
sufficient  vitality  to  preserve  it  from  putrefaction."  In 
his  Dictionary  he  defined  "  network "  as  "  anything  re- 
ticulated or  decussated  at  equal  distances  with  interstices 
between  the  intersections."  Some  wits  of  the  day  said 
that  he  used  long  words  to  make  his  Dictionary  a  neces- 
sity. If  we  read  much  of  Johnson,  we  are  in  danger  of 
imitating  him  unconsciously.  A  critic  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  describing  Johnson's  style, 
says  :  "  He  delivers  himself  with  severe  majestical  dignity 
and  vigorous  authoritative  brevity."  This  critic  was  un- 
consciously writing  Johnsonese. 

In  the  second  place,  Johnson  loved  formal  balance  so 
much  that  he  used  too  many  antitheses.  Many  of  his 
balancing  clauses  are  out  of  place  or  add  nothing  to  the 
sense.  The  following  shows  excess  of  antithesis  :  — 


300  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

"  If  the  flights  of  Dryden,  therefore,  are  higher,  Pope  continues 
longer  on  the  wing.  If  of  Dryden's  fire  the  blaze  is  brighter,  of  Pope's 
the  heat  is  more  regular  and  constant.  Dryden  often  surpasses  expec- 
tation, and  Pope  never  falls  below  it.  Dryden  is  read  with  frequent 
astonishment,  and  Pope  with  perpetual  delight."  1 

As  a  rule,  Johnson's  prose  is  too  abstract  and  general, 
and  it  awakens  too  few  images.  This  is  a  characteristic 
failing  of  his  essays  in  The  Rambler  and  The  Idler. 
Even  in  Rasselas,  his  great  work  of  fiction,  he  speaks 
of  passing  through  the  fields  and  seeing  the  animals 
around  him,  but  he  does  not  mention  definite  trees, 
flowers,  or  animals.  Shakespeare's  wounded  stag  or 
"  winking  Mary-buds "  would  have  given  a  touch  of 
life  to  the  whole  scene. 

Johnson's  latest  and  greatest  work,  The  Lives  of  the 
Poets,  is  comparatively  free  from  most  of  these  faults. 
The  sentences  are  energetic  and  full  of  meaning.  Al- 
though we  may  not  agree  with  much  of  the  criticism, 
we  shall  find  it  stimulating  and  suggestive..  Before  he 
gave  these  critical  essays  to  the  world,  he  had  been 
doing  little  for  years  except  talking  in  a  straightforward 
manner.  His  constant  practice  in  speaking  English 
reacted  on  his  later  written  work.  Unfortunately  this 
work  has  been  the  least  imitated. 

SUMMARY 

The  second  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  a  time 
of  changing  standards  in  church,  state,  and  literature. 
The  downfall  of  Walpole,  the  religious  revivals  of  Wes- 
ley, the  victories  of  Clive  in  India  and  of  Wolfe  in  Canada, 
show  the  progress  that  England  was  making  at  home 
and  abroad. 

1  Lives  of  the  PocU. 


SUMMARY  301 

There  began  to  be  a  revolt  against  the  narrow  classical 
standards  in  literature.  A  longing  gradually  manifested 
itself  for  more  freedom  of  imagination,  such  as  we  find 
in  Ossian,  The  Castle  of  Otranto,  Percy's  Reliques,  and 
translations  of  the  Norse  mythology.  There  was  a  de- 
parture from  the  hackneyed  forms  and  subjects  of  the 
preceding  age  and  an  introduction  of  more  of  the  sub- 
jective and  ideal  element,  such  as  can  be  found  in 
Gray's  Elegy  and  Collins's  Ode  to  Evening.  The  progress 
toward  romanticism  was  neither  uniform  nor  constant. 
Dr.  Johnson  threw  his  powerful  influence  against  the 
movement,  and  curbed  somewhat  the  romantic  tendencies 
in  Goldsmith,  who,  nevertheless,  gave  fine  romantic  touches 
to  The  Deserted  Village  and  to  much  of  his  other  work. 
This  period  was  one  of  preparation  for  the  glorious 
romantic  outburst  at  the  end  of  the  century. 

In  prose,  the  most  important  achievement  of  the  age 
was  the  creation  of  the  modern  novel.  In  addition  to 
Richardson's  Pamela  and  Clarissa  Harlowe,  Fielding's 
Tom  Jones,  Sterne's  Tristram  Shandy,  Smollett's  Hnm- 
plirey  Clinker,  and  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  there 
were  noted  prose  works  in  philosophy  and  history  by 
Hume  and  Gibbon,  in  politics  by  Burke,  and  in  criticism 
by  Johnson! 


REQUIRED   READINGS   FOR   CHAPTER  VIII 
HISTORICAL 

Gardiner,1  pp.  730-792  ;  Green,  pp.  735-786;  Underwood-Guest,  pp. 
523-535  ;  Guerber,  pp.  303-308 ;  HassalPs  Making  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, pp.  30-82;  Traill,  V.,  172-365. 

1  For  full  titles,  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 


3O2  FROM   1740  TO   1780 

LITERARY 

The  Romantic  Movement.  —  In  order  to  note  the  difference  in  feel- 
ing, imagery,  and  ideals,  between  the  romantic  and  the  classic  schools, 
it  will  be  advisable  for  the  student  to  make  a  special  comparison  of 
Dryden's  and  Pope's  satiric  and  didactic  verse  with  Spenser's  Faerie 
Queene  and  Milton's  //  Penseroso.  What  is  the  difference  in  the  gen- 
eral atmosphere  of  these  poems?  See  if  the  influence  of  //  Penseroso  is 
noticeable  in  Collins's  Ode  to  Evening  (Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  III., 
p.  287),  and  in  Gray's  Elegy  (Ward,  III.,  331). 

What  element  foreign  to  Dryden  and  Pope  appears  in  Thomson's 
Seasons  (Ward,  III.,  173)? 

What  signs  of  a  struggle  between  the  romantic  and  the  classic  are 
noticeable  in  Goldsmith's  Deserted  Village  (Ward,  III.,  373-379)? 
Pick  out  the  three  finest  passages  in  the  poem,  and  give  the  reasons  for 
the  choice. 

Read  pp.  173-176  of  Ossian  (Canterbury  Poets  series,  40  cents), 
and  show  why  it  appealed  to  the  spirit  of  romanticism. 

Read  the  opening  of  Walpole's  Castle  of  Otranto  (Cassell's  National 
Library,  No.  9,  10  cents),  and  explain  why  the  time  welcomed  a 
romance  of  that  order. 

In  Percy's  Reliques,  read  the  first  ballad,  that  of  Chevy  Chase,  and 
explain  how  the  age  could  turn  from  Pope  to  read  such  rude  verse. 

The  Novel.  —  Guy,  Earl  of  Warwick  is  given  in  Morley's  Early 
Prose  Romances  (pp.  331-408).  An  easily  accessible  Elizabethan  novel 
is  Greene's  Pandosto,  which  may  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  Cassell 
National  Library  edition  of  Shakespeare's  Winter's  Tale  (No.  101, 
10  cents).  Selections  from  Lodge's  Rosalind  are  given  in  Craik's 
English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  544-549.  These  should  be  com- 
pared with  the  parallel  parts  of  As  You  Like  It.  {Rosalind  may  be 
found  complete  in  No.  62  of  Cassell's  National  Library.)  Selections 
from  Nash's  The  Unfortunate  Traveller  are  given  in  Craik,  I.,  573- 
576,  and  selections  from  Sidney's  Arcadia  in  the  same  volume, 
pp.  409-419- 

For  the  preliminary  sketching  of  characters  that  might  serve  as  types 
in  fiction,  read  The  Spectators  Club  by  Steele  (Cassell's  National 
Library,  No.  28,  pp.  21-29,  IO  cents).  Defoe's  Robinson  Crusoe  will 
be  read  entire  by  almost  every  one. 

In  Craik,  IV.,  read  the  following  selections  from  these  four  great 
novelists  of  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century :  from  Richard- 


READING    REFERENCES  303 

son,  pp.  59-66;  from  Fielding,  pp.  118-125  i  fr°m  Sterne,  pp.  213-219; 
and  from  Smollett,  pp.  261-264  and  269-272. 

Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield  should  be  read  entire  by  the  student 
(Eclectic  English  Classics,  American  Book  Co.).  Selections  may  be 
found  in  Craik,  IV.,  365-370. 

Sketch  the  general  lines  of  development  in  fiction,  from  the  early 
romance  to  Fielding.  What  type  of  fiction  did  Don  Quixote  ridicule  ? 
Compare  Greene's  Pandosto  with  Shakespeare's  Winters  Tale,  and 
Lodge's  Rosalind  with  As  You  Like  It.  In  what  relation  do  Steele 
and  Addison  stand  to  the  novel?  Why  is  the  modern  novel  said  to 
begin  with  Richardson?  Why  is  the  novel  a  dangerous  rival  of  the 
drama  ? 

Philosophy.  —  Two  selections  from  Berkeley  in  Craik,  IV.,  34- 
39,  give  some  of  that  philosopher's  subtle  metaphysics.  The  same 
volume,  pp.  189-195,  gives  a  selection  from  Hume's  Treatise  of  Human 
Nature.  Can  the  subject  matter  in  these  be  readily  comprehended, 
or  is  the  style  involved  and  metaphysical  ? 

Gibbon.  —  Read  Aurelian's  campaign  against  Zenobia,  which  con- 
stitutes the  last  third  of  Chap.  XI.  of  the  first  volume  of  The  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Other  selections  may  be  found  in 
Craik,  IV.,  460-472. 

What  is  the  special  merit  of  Gibbon's  work  ?  Compare  his  style, 
either  in  description  or  in  narration,  with  Bunyan's. 

Burke.  —  Let  the  student  who  has  not  the  time  to  read  all  the 
speech  on  Conciliation  with  America  (Eclectic  English  Classics,  20 
cents)  read  the  selection  in  Craik,  IV.,  379-385,  and  also  the  selection 
referring  to  the  decline  of  chivalry,  from  Reflections  on  the  Revolution 
in  France  (Craik,  IV.,  402). 

Point  out  in  Burke's  writings  the  four  characteristics  mentioned  on 
pp.  291,  292.  Compare  his  style  with  Bacon's,  Swift's,  Addison's,  and 
Gibbon's. 

Johnson.  —  Representative  selections  are  given  in  Craik,  IV.,  141- 
185.  Those  from  The  Lives  of  the  Poets  (Craik,  IV.,  175-182)  will 
best  repay  study.  Let  the  student  who  has  the  time  read  Dryden's 
Life  entire  (Cassell's  National  Library,  No.  36,  10  cents).  As  much 
as  possible  of  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson  should  be  read  (Craik,  IV., 
482-495). 

Compare  the  style  of  Johnson  with  that  of  Gibbon  and  Burke.  For 
what  reasons  does  Johnson  hold  a  high  position  in  literature  ? 


304  FROM   1740  TO.  1780 

WORKS   FOR  CONSULTATION   AND   FURTHER   STUDY 
(OPTIONAL) 

Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Thackeray's  The  Four  Georges. 

Taine's  History  of  English  Literature.  Book  III.,  Chap.  VI. 

Phillips's  Popular  Manual  of  English  Literature,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  3-84. 

Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature,  pp.  409-486. 

Baldwin's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  English  Literature,  Vol.  II., 
pp.  134-258. 

Clark's  Study  of  English  Prose  Writers,  pp.  199-322. 

Gosse's  History  of  English  Literature  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Perry's  English  Literature  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  pp.  282-419. 

Saintsbury's  A  Short  History  of  English  Literature,  pp.  567-636. 

Stephen's  History  of  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Jusserand's  The  English  Novel  in  the  Time  of  Shakespeare. 

Cross's  The  Development  of  the  English  Novel. 

Raleigh's  The  English  Novel;  Lanier's  The  English  Novel. 

Dunlop's  History  of  Fiction. 

Beers's  English  Romanticism,  XVIII.  Century. 

Phelps's  Beginnings  of  the  English  Romantic  Movement. 

Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  245-381. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  25-421. 

Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library.  Vol.  I.  contains  an  excellent  essay 
on  Samuel  Richardson,  and  Vol.  II.  one  on  Henry  Fielding. 

Traill's  The  New  Fiction  and  Other  Essays  contains  Samuel 
Richardson  (pp.  104-136),  and  The  Novel  of  Manners  (pp.  137-169). 

Dobson's  Life  of  Fielding. 

Thackeray's  English  Humorists. 

Huxley's  Life  of  Hume. 

M orison's  Life  of  Gibbon. 

Forster's,  Dobson's,  or  Black's  Life  of  Goldsmith. 

Stephen's  Life  of  Johnson]  Grant's  Life  of  Johnson. 

Dr.  Johnson 's  Writings  in  Vol.  II.  of  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library. 

Bos  well's  Life  of  Johnson. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Croker^s  Edition  of  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson. 

Fitzgerald's  Life  of  Bosivell. 

Gosse's  Life  of  Gray. 

Morley's  Life  of  Edmund  Burke, 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

The  Victory  of  Romanticism.  —  We  have  traced  in  the 
preceding  age  the  beginnings  of  the  romantic  move- 
ment. Its  ascendency  over  classical  rules  was  com- 
plete in  the  period  between  1780  and  the  Victorian  age. 
The  romantic  victory  brought  to  literature  more  individual- 
ity, deeper  feeling,  a  less  artificial  form  of  expression,  and 
an  added  sense  for  the  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of 
nature  and  their  spiritual  significance. 

Swinburne  says  that  the  new  poetic  school,  "usually 
registered  as  Wordsworthian,"  was  "  actually  founded  at 
midnight  by  William  Blake  [1757-1827]  and  fortified  at 
sunrise  by  William  Wordsworth."  These  lines  from 
Blake's  To  the  Evening  Star  (1783)  may  be  given  to  sup- 
port this  statement :  — 

"  Thou  fair-haired  Angel  of  the  Evening, 

Smile  on  our  loves ;  and  while  thou  drawest  the 
Blue  curtains  of  the  sky,  scatter  thy  silver  dew 
On  every  flower  that  shuts  its  sweet  eyes 
In  timely  sleep.     Let  thy  West  Wind  sleep  on 
The  lake." 

If  any  one  wishes  to  become  a  critic  sufficiently  intelli- 
gent to  appreciate  the  differences  in  the  work  of  English 
poets,  it  will  be  an  excellent  step  for  him  to  compare  the 
poetry  of  this  romantic  school  —  beginning  with  the  above 
lines,  for  instance  —  with  the  verse  of  Pope. 

305 


306  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

If  we  except  the  verse  of  Milton,  we  may  say  that  the 
poetry  of  this  age  is  more  genuine  and  unaffected  than 
any  other  produced  in  England  since  the  time  of  Eliza- 
beth. The  eyes  of  honest  Cowper  looked  face  to  face  on 
nature  and  on  rural  life.  To  express  strong  feeling  was 
unfashionable  in  the  time  of  Pope,  but  in  the  romantic 
age  there  was  no  more  hesitancy  than  in  Elizabethan  days 
in  voicing  the  deepest  and  most  varied  emotions  of  the 
soul.  Wordsworth,  the  greatest  representative  of  the  ro- 
mantic age,  boldly  said  :  "All  good  poetry  is  the  sponta- 
neous overflow  of  powerful  feelings."  We  hear  from  the 
lips  of  Burns  immortal  songs  of  intense  love,  which  make 
all  seasons  seem  like  spring. 

Increased  Range  of  Literary  Activity.  —  Because  of  its 
lack  of  polish  and  of  conventionality,  the  classicists  had 
looked  upon  England's  past  as  a  rude  age,  worthy  of  con- 
tempt. Writers  now  began  to  regard  that  past  as  the 
parent  of  the  present  and  to  enrich  literature  with  pictures 
of  bygone  times.  At  his  magic  bidding,  Scott  made  the 
knightly  past  don  the  garb  of  life  for 
the  entertainment  of  the  world.  Charles 
Lamb  (p.  312)  increased  the  influence 
of  the  Elizabethan  age  by  an  excellent 
volume  of  selections  from  the  half-for- 
gotten dramatists  of  that  time. 

The  union  of   strong   imagination 
with  intellect  gave   more   variety  to 
literature  than  resulted  in   the    first 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  from 
CHARLES  LAMB  tne  union  °f   intellect  with  weak  or 

repressed  imagination.  We  conse- 
quently find  a  greater  variety  in  the  song  notes  of  the 
poets,  from  George  Crabbe  (1754-1832),  who  sings  of  the 


INCREASED   RANGE  OF   LITERARY   ACTIVITY  307 

miseries  of  the  poor,  to  Shelley  and  Byron,  who  at  one 
moment  voice  intense  desire  for  individual  liberty  and  at 
another  paint  the  delicate  traceries  of  cloud  or  the  ocean 

mirror 

"  .  .  .  where  the  Almighty's  form 
Glasses  itself  in  tempests." 1 

Such  was  the  power  of  imagination  that  a  new  world  then 
burst  from  the  chrysalis  of  the  old.  Wordsworth  heard 
from  the  common  flowers,  the  pansy  at  his  feet,  the  prim- 
rose by  a  river's  brim,  truths  newer  and  more  weighty 
than  fell  from  the  lips  of  any  lord  or  lady  mentioned  in 
Pope's  verses.  Keats  could  utter  with  new  meaning  :  — 

u  The  poetry  of  earth  is  never  dead."  2 

We  may  say  of  the  poetry  of  this  age  what  Coleridge's 
Ancient  Mariner  said  of  the  music  that  filled  the  sea  and 
air  around  him  :  — 

"  And  now  'twas  like  all  instruments, 
Now  like  a  lonely  flute ; 
And  now  it  is  an  angel's  song, 
That  makes  the  heavens  be  mute." 

After  a  thorough  study  of  the  romantic  age,  each  one  may ' 
truthfully  apply  to  himself  this  line  from  Keats :  — 

"Much  have  I  travel'd  in  the  realms  of  gold."8 

As  varied  as  was  the  imaginative  activity  of  the  poets, 
it  was  for  the  most  part  confined  to  regarding  Nature  and 
Man  from  a  new  point  of  view.  Let  us  next  try  to  note 
more  specifically  in  what  this  change  consists. 

1  Byron :   Childe  Harold,  Canto  IV.  2  To  a  Grasshopper, 

8  On  First  Looking  into  Chapman1  s  Homer. 


308  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

Growth  of  Appreciation  of  Nature.  —  In  the  appreciation 
of  Nature  and  in  sympathetic  interpretation  of  her  various 
moods,  every  preceding  age,  even  the  Elizabethan,  is  sur- 
passed. For  more  than  a  century  after  Milton,  the  majority 
of  references  to  nature  were  made  in  general  terms  and  were 
borrowed  from  the  stock  illustrations  of  older  poets,  like 
Virgil.  We  find  the  conventional  lark,  nightingale,  and 
turtledove.  Nothing  new  or  definite  is  said  of  them.  In 
many  cases  the  poets  had  probably  neither  heard  nor  seen 
them.  Increasing  comforts  and  safety  in  travel  now  took 
more  people  where  they  could  see  for  themselves  the 
beauties  of  nature.  Gradually,  observation  became  more 
exact,  after  the  most  obvious  aspects  of  natural  objects  had 
been  commonly  noted.  In  the  new  poetry  of  nature  we 
find  more  definiteness.  We  can  hear  the  whir  of  the  par- 
tridge, the  chatter  of  magpies,  the  caw  of  the  rook,  the 
whistling  of  the  quail.  Poets  speak  not  only  in  general 
terms  of  a  tree,  but  they  also  note  the  differences  in  the 
shade  of  the  green  of  the  leaves  and  the  peculiarities  of 
the  bark.  Previous  to  this  time,  poets  borrowed  from 
Theocritus  and  Virgil  piping  shepherds  reclining  in  the 
shade,  whom  no  Englishman  had  ever  seen.  Wordsworth 
pictures  a  genuine  English  shepherd  in  Michael. 

The  love  for  mountains  and  wild  nature  is  of  recent 
growth.  One  writer  in  the  seventeenth  century  considered 
the  Alps  as  so  much  rubbish  swept  together  by  the 
broom  of  nature  to  clear  the  plains  of  Italy.  A  seven- 
teenth century  traveler  thought  the  Welsh  mountains 
better  than  the  Alps  because  the  former  would  pasture 
goats.  Dr.  Johnson  asked :  "  Who  can  like  the  High- 
lands ? "  The  influence  of  the  romantic  movement  de- 
veloped the  love  for  wild  scenery,  which  is  so  conspicuous 
in  Wordsworth  and  Byron.  The  poetry  of  wonder  and 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE   DEMOCRATIC   SPIRIT  309 

mystery  naturally  followed  this  sympathetic  feeling  for  wild 
and  solitary  nature.  Coleridge's  Ancient  Mariner  is  a  roman- 
tic masterpiece,  filled  with  the  mystery  of  the  lonely  sea. 

The  eighteenth  century  classicists  loved  the  town  and 
despised  the  country,  but  the  spread  of  romanticism 
changed  this  feeling.  Burns  could  say :  — 

"  The  Muse,  na  Poet  ever  fand  her 
Till  by  himsel  he  leaned  to  wander 
Adown  some  trottin  burn's 1  meander."  2 

As  the  eighteenth  century  closed,  we  may  notice  that 
Nature  was  loved  more  and  more  for  herself,  and  not 
merely  because  she  was  useful  to  man  or  appeared  to 
flatter  him  by  reflecting  his  emotions.  To  William  Words- 
worth, the  greatest  romantic  poet,  nature  seemed  to  possess 
a  conscious  soul,  which  expressed  itself  in  the  primrose, 
the  rippling  lake,  or  the  cuckoo's  song,  with  as  much 
intelligence  as  human  lips  ever  displayed  in  whispering 
a  secret  to  the  ear  of  love. 

Influence  of  the  Democratic  Spirit  on  the  Poetry  of 
Man.  —  In  the  age  of  Pope,  the  only  type  of  man  con- 
sidered worthy  of  a  place  in  literature  was  the  aristocratic, 
cultured  class.  The  ordinary  laborer  was  an  object  too 
contemptible  even  for  satire.  The  democratic  movement 
had  for  some  time  been  gathering  force.  In  1789  this 
movement  culminated  in  the  French  Revolution  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  nobility.  The  youth  of  all  Europe 
responded  to  the  cry  of  the  French  people  for  Liberty, 
Fraternity,  Equality,  and  looked  forward  rapturously  to 
the  time  when  mankind  should  be  united  under  the  uni- 
versal democracy  of  Man,  without  regard  to  nationality, 
birth,  or  religion. 

1  stream.  2  7!?  William  Simpson. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  2O 


310  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

Such  feelings  completely  changed  the  way  of  looking 
at  the  begrimed,  hard-handed  laborer.  He  was  no  longer 
simply  a  burden  bearer  or  a  machine,  but  a  friend  and  a 
brother.  In  1795  Burns  could  proclaim  thoughts  which 
would  have  been  laughed  to  scorn  early  in  the  cen- 
tury :  — 

"  Is  there,  for  honest  poverty, 

That  hangs  his  head  and  a'  that? 

The  coward  slave,  we  pass  him  by, 

We  dare  be  poor  for  a'  that ! 

The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp ; 
The  man's  the  gowd1  for  a'  that."2 

To  the  ardent  young  spirits  of  the  time,  this  French 
Revolution  meant  the  downfall  of  the  old  dynasty  of 
tyranny,  and  the  birth  of  a  new  dynasty  of  world-wide 
liberty.  The  English  poets  struck  on  their  lyres  notes 
of  hope,  of  promise,  of  boundless  possibilities,  not  heard 
since  the  days  of  the  Elizabethans.  Like  the  Eliza- 
bethans, the  poets  of  the  Revolution  saw  the  rising  of 
a  new  sun  and  dreamed  of  what  would  be  when  it 
reached  its  glorious  meridian,  and  liberty  was  at  every 
hearth.  The  very  buoyancy  of  youth  was  in  the  earth, 
and  her  poets  caught  the  new  spirit. 

"  Bliss  was  it  in  that  dawn  to  be  alive, 
But  to  be  young  was  very  Heaven!  "* 

cried  the  usually  sober-minded  Wordsworth.  Shelley's 
poetry  is  colored  with  rosy  dreams  of  an  enfranchised 
humanity. 

All  the  influences  exerted  by  statesmen,  poets,  and  phi- 
lanthropists gradually  brought  fuller  freedom  to  Great 
Britain.  Before  Victoria  ascended  the  throne,  the  House 

1  gold.  *For  a'  That  and  a'  That.  •  The  Prelude,  Book  XI. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT  311 

of  Lords  had  been  forced  to  withdraw  its  opposition  to 
the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill,  which  gave  to  the  middle 
classes  more  voice  in  the  government ;  negro  slavery  had 
been  abolished ;  and  even  the  unfortunate  and  the  criminal 
classes  had  found  their  champions. 

Philosophical  Thought.  —  While  the  French  revolution- 
ists were  proclaiming  the  equal  rights  of  all  men,  and  the 
British  Parliament  was  gradually  realizing  the  force  of 
this  view,  the  philosophers  were  not  confining  their 
attention  entirely  to  metaphysics,  as  had  been  the  cus- 
tom too  often  in  the  past,  but  they  were  laying  the 
foundations  for  the  new  science  of  political  economy  and 
endeavoring  to  ascertain  how  the  condition  of  the  masses 
could  be  improved.  While  investigating  this  subject, 
Malthus  (1766-1834)  announced  his  famous  proposition, 
since -known  as  the  Malthusian  theorem,  that  population 
tends  to  increase  faster  than  the  means  of  subsistence. 

In  moral  philosophy,  Jeremy  Bentham  (1748-1832) 
laid  down  the  principle  that  happiness  is  the  prime  ob- 
ject of  existence.  He  shocked  the  upper  classes  of 
society  generally  by  announcing  the  revolutionary  prin- 
ciple that  the  happiness  of  any  one  person,  whether  lord 
or  bishop,  is  no  more  important  than  the  happiness  of 
any  other  individual,  although  he  may  be  a  factory 
hand.  Bentham  insisted  that  the  basis  of  legislation 
should  be  the  greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest  number, 
instead  of  to  the  privileged  few.  He  measured  the 
morality  of  actions  by  their  efficiency  in  securing  this 
happiness,  and  he  said  that  pushpin  is  as  good  as  poetry, 
if  it  gives  as  much  pleasure.  Such  novel  statements  set 
men  to  thinking.  He  was  followed  by  James  Mill  (1773- 
1836),  who  maintained  that  the  morality  of  actions  is 
measured  by  their  utility. 


312  THE  AGE  OF   ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

Coleridge  abhorred  the  destructive  doctrine  of  Hume 
and  the  utilitarian  dogmas  of  Bentham  and  Mill.  To 
Coleridge,  only  the  modern  teachings  of  German  philoso- 
phers, like  Kant  and  Schelling,  were  congenial,  and  he 
propounded  an  idealistic  philosophy  and  urged  upon  his 
common-sense  generation  that  mind  alone  is  the  force 
in  the  world  and  that  God  reveals  himself  to  every  mind 
directly.  To  Coleridge  is  largely  due  the  introduction  of 
German  influence  on  English  philosophic  thought. 

We  find  in  Shelley  striking  poetic  expression  of  the  be- 
lief in  the  immanence  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  everything, 
from  the  flower  to  the  storm.  Such  lines  as  these  on 
the  death  of  Keats  express  a  philosophy  almost  pan- 
theistic :  — 

"  He  is  made  one  with  Nature  :  there  is  heard 
His  voice  in  all  her  music,  from  the  moan 
Of  thunder  to  the  song  of  night's  sweet  bird. 

Dust  to  the  dust !  but  the  pure  spirit  shall  flow 
Back  to  the  burning  fountain  whence  it  came, 
A  portion  of  the  Eternal." 1 

The  Position  of  Prose.  —  The  eighteenth  century  until 
near  its  close  was,  broadly  speaking,  an  age  of  prose.  In 
excellence  and  variety,  the  prose  surpassed  the  poetry, 
but  in  this  age  (1780-1837)  their  position  was  reversed, 
and  poetry  regained  almost  an  Elizabethan  ascendency. 
Toward  the  close  of  this  era,  the  Victorian  giants  of  prose, 
Carlyle  and  Macaulay,  began  their  work,  but  the  chief  prose 
writers  belonging  to  this  age  are  Scott,  Lamb,  Southey, 
Coleridge,  De  Quincey,  and  Landor. 

The  works  of  Scott  alone,  among  this  group,  are  widely 
read  to-day,  although  the  delicate  humor  and  unique  liter- 
ary flavor  of  Charles  Lamb's  (1775-1834)  Essays  of  Elia 

1  Adonais. 


WILLIAM  COWPER  313 

still  charm  many  devotees.    Coleridge  has,  perhaps,  a  thou- 
sand readers  for  his  Ancient  Mariner  to  one  for  his  prose. 
Southey  (1774-1843),  usually  classed  with  Wordsworth  and 
Coleridge   as  one  of   the   three   so-called 
Lake    Poets,    wrote    much   better  prose 
than  poetry.     His  Life  of  Nelson  ranks 
better  as  prose  than  his  Curse  of  Kehama 
as  poetry.     It  is  probable  that,  had  he 
lived  in    an  age  of   prose  ascendency, 
he  would  have  written  little  poetry,  for 
he  distinctly  says  that  the  desire  of 
making  money  "has  already  led  me  to 
write  sometimes  in  poetry  what  would 
perhaps  otherwise   have   been   better         ROBERT  SOUTHEY 
written  in  prose."   This  statement  shows 
in  a  striking  way  the  spirit  of  those  times.     To-day  one 
who  wishes  to  make  money  avoids  writing  poetry. 

The  prose  of  the  age  is  often  the  vehicle  of  romantic 
adventure,  as  in  Scott,  and  of  romantic  humor,  as  in 
Lamb's  Dissertation  on  Roast  Pig  and  De  Quincey's  Mur- 
der considered  as  one  of  the  Fine  Arts.  The  prose  of  one 
writer,  Walter  Savage  Landor,  is  the  embodiment  of  con- 
scious style  and  classical  polish.  These  qualities  are 
conspicuous  in  his  Imaginary  Conversations.  Some  of  the 
critical  prose  is  well  worth  study,  especially  Wordsworth's 
Prefaces  and  parts  of  Coleridge's  Biographia  Literaria, 
which  expound  the  literary  philosophy  of  the  new  school 
of  poetry. 

WILLIAM   COWPER,   1731-1800 

Life.  —  It  is  usual  to  associate  the  idea  of  overpowering 
enthusiasm  or  of  intrepid  fearlessness  with  the  leaders  of 
all  new  movements.  But  with  the  name  of  Cowper,  one 


314 


THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


of  the  earliest  among  the  romantic  poets,  neither  charac- 
teristic can  be  coupled.  He  was  one  of  the  shyest  and 
most  shrinking  of  men.  He  had  none  of  the  aggressive 
traits  that  make  a  reformer,  and  the  thought  of  inaugura- 
ting a  revolt  from  the  standard  subjects  of  verse  would 
have  frightened  him  into  silence.  He  was  merely  a  child 
of  nature  who  passed  his  life  among  rural  scenes  and 
wrote  of  what  he  knew  best. 

His  life  is  a  tale  of  almost  continual  sadness,  caused  by 
his  morbid  timidity.      He  was  born  at  Great  Berkhamp- 


WILLIAM   COWPER  315 

stead,  Hertfordshire,  in  1731.  At  the  age  of  six,  he  lost 
his  mother  and  was  placed  in  a  boarding  school".  Here  his 
sufferings  began.  The  child  was  so  especially  terrified 
by  one  rough  boy  that  he  could  never  raise  his  eyes  to 
the  bully's  face,  but  knew  him  unmistakably  by  his  shoe 
buckles. 

There  was  some  happiness  for  Cowper  at  his  next 
school,  the  Westminster  School,  and  also  during  the  twelve 
succeeding  years,  when  he  studied  law;  but  the  short  res- 
pite was  followed  by  the  gloom  of  madness.  Owing  to 
his  ungovernable  fear  of  a  public  examination,  which  was 
necessary  to  secure  the  position  offered  by  an  uncle, 
Cowper  underwent  days  and  nights  of  agony,  when  he 
tried  in  many  ways  to  end  his  miserable  life.  The  fright- 
ful ordeal  unsettled  his  reason,  and  he  spent .  eighteen 
months  in  an  insane  asylum. 

Upon  his  recovery,  he  was  taken  into  the  house  of  a 
Rev.  Mr.  Unwin,  whose  wife  tended  Cowper  as  an  own 
son  during  the  rest  of  her  life.  He  was  never  supremely 
happy,  and  he  was  sometimes  again  thrown  into  madness 
by  the  terrible  thought  of  God's  wrath,  but  his  life  was 
passed  in  a  quiet  manner  in  the  villages  of  Weston  and 
Olney,  where  he  was  loved  by  every  one.  The  simple 
pursuits  of  gardening,  carpentering,  visiting  the  sick,  caring 
for  his  numerous  pets,  rambling  through  the  lanes,  and 
studying  nature,  occupied  his  sane  moments  when  he  was 
not  at  prayer. 

Works.  —  Cowper's  first  works  were  the  Olney  Hymns. 
His  religious  nature  is  manifest  again  in  the  volume 
which  consists  of  didactic  poems  upon  such  subjects  as 
The  Progress  of  Error,  Truth,  Charity,  Table  Talk,  and 
Conversation.  These  are  in  the  spirit  of  the  formal  clas- 
sical poets,  and  contain  sententious  couplets  such  as, 


316  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

"  An  idler  is  a  watch  that  wants  both  hands, 
As  useless  when  it  goes  as  when  it  stands."  1 

"Vociferated  logic  kills  me  quite ; 
A  noisy  man  is  always  in  the  right."  2 

The  bare  didacticism  of  these  poems  is  softened  and 
sweetened  by  the  gentle,  devout  nature  of  the  poet,  and  is 
enlivened  by  a  vein  of  pure  humor. 

He  is  one  of  England's  most  delightful  letter  writers 
because  of  his  humor,  which  ripples  occasionally  over  the 
stream  of  his  constitutional  melancholy.  The  Diverting 
History  of  John  Gilpin  is  extremely  humorous.  The  poet 
seems  to  have  forgotten  himself  in  this  ballad  and  to  have 
given  full  expression  to  his  sense  of  the  ludicrous. 

The  work  which  has  made  his  name  famous  is  The 
Task.  He  gave  it  this  title  half  humorously  because  his 
friend,  Lady  Austen,  had  bidden  him  write  a  poem  in 
blank  verse  upon  some  subject  or  other,  the  sofa,  for 
instance;  and  he  called  the  first  book  of  the  poem  The 
Sofa.  The  7^ask  is  chiefly  remarkable  because  it  turns 
from  the  artificial  and  conventional  subjects  which  had 
been  popular,  and  describes  simple  beauties  of  nature  and 
the  joys  of  country  life.  Cowper  says:  — 

"God  made  the  country, and  man  made  the  town." 

To  a  public  acquainted  with  the  nature  poetry  of  Burns, 
Wordsworth,  and  Tennyson,  Cowper's  poem  does  not 
seem  a  wonderful  production.  Appearing  as  it  did,  how- 
ever, during  the  ascendency  of  Pope's  influence,  when 
aristocratic  city  life  was  the  only  theme  for  verse,  The 
Task  is  a  strikingly  original  work.  It  marks  a  change 
from  the  artificial  style  of  eighteenth  century  poetry  and 

1  Retirement.  2  Conversation. 


ROBERT   BURNS  317 

proclaims  the  dawn  of  the  natural  style  of  the  new  school. 
He  who  could  write  of 

" .  .  .  rills  that  slip 

Through  the  cleft  rock,  and  chiming  as  they  fall 
Upon  loose  pebbles,  lose  themselves  at  length 
In  matted  grass,  that  with  a  livelier  green 
Betrays  the  secret  of  their  silent  course," 

was  a  worthy  forerunner  of  Shelley  and  Keats. 

General  Characteristics.  —  Cowper's  religious  fervor  was 
the  strongest  element  in  both  his  life  and  his  writings. 
Perhaps  that  which  next  appealed  to  his  nature  was 
the  pathetic.  He  had  considerable  mastery  of  pathos,  as 
may  be  seen  in  the  drawing  of  "crazed  Kate  "  in  The 
Task,  in  the  lines  To  Mary,  and  in  the  touchingly  beautiful 
poem  On  the  Receipt  of  My  Mothers  Picture  out  of  Nor- 
folk, beginning  with  that  well-known  line  :  — 

"  Oh  that  those  lips  had  language  ! " 

The  two  most  attractive  characteristics  of  his  works  are 
refined,  gentle  humor  and  a  simple  and  true  manner  of 
picturing  rural  scenes  .and  incidents.  He  says  that  he 
described  no  spot  which  he  had  not  seen,  and  expressed 
no  emotion  which  he  had  not  felt.  In  this  way,  he  re- 
stricted the  range  of  his  subjects  and  displayed  a  some- 
what literal  mind,  but,  what  he  had  seen  and  felt,  he 
touched  with  a  light  fancy  and  with  considerable  imagi- 
native power. 

ROBERT  BURNS,  1759-1796 

Life.  — The  greatest  of  Scottish  poets  was  born  in  a 
peasant's  clay-built  cottage,  a  mile  and  a  half  south  of 
Ayr.  His  father  was  a  man  whose  morality,  industry,  and 
zeal  for  education  made  him  an  admirable  parent.  For 


THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


a  picture  of  the  father  and  the  home  influences  under 
which  the  boy  was  reared,  The  Cotter  s  Saturday  Night 
should  be  read.  The  poet  had  little  formal  schooling, 
but  under  paternal  influence  he  learned  how  to  teach 
himself. 

Until  his  twenty-eighth  year,  Robert  Burns  was  an  ordi- 
nary laborer  on  one  or  another  of  the  Ayrshire  tenant 
farms  which  his  father  or  brothers  leased.  At  the  age  of 


BIRTHPLACE    OF    ROBERT    BURNS 


fifteen,  the  future  poet  was  worked  beyond  his  strength  in 
doing  a  man's  full  labor.  He  called  his  life  on  the  Ayr- 
shire farms  "the  unceasing  toil  of  a  galley  slave."  All 
his  life  he  fought  a  hand-to-hand  fight  with  poverty. 

In  1786,  when  he  was  twenty-seven  years  old,  he  re- 
solved to  abandon  the  struggle  and  seek  a  position  in  the 
far-off  island  of  Jamaica.  In  order  to  secure  money  for 
his  passage,  he  published  some  poems  which  he  had 


ROBERT  BURNS  319 

thought  out  while  following  the  plow  or  resting  after  the 
day's  toil.  Six  hundred  copies  were  printed  at  three  shil- 
lings each.  All  were  sold  in  a  little  over  a  month.  At 
the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  copy  of  this  edition 
was.  sold  in  Edinburgh  for  ^572.  His  fame  from  that 
little  volume  has  grown  as  much  as  its  monetary  value. 

Some  Edinburgh  critics  praised  the  poems  very  highly 
and  suggested  a  second  edition.  He  abandoned  the  idea 
of  going  to  Jamaica  and  went  to  Edinburgh  to  arrange  for 
a  new  edition.  Here  he  was  entertained  by  the  foremost 
men  of  the  town,  some  of  whom  wished  to  see  how  a 
plowman  would  behave  in  polite  society,  while  others 
desired  to  gaze  on  what  they  regarded  as  a  freak  of 
nature.  The  new  volume  appeared  in  1/87,  and  con- 
tained but  few  poems  which  had  not  been  published  the 
previous  year.  The  following  winter  he  again  went  to 
Edinburgh,  but  he  was  almost  totally  neglected  by  the 
leaders  in  literature  and  society. 

In  1788  Burns  married  Jean  Armour  and  took  her  to 
a  farm  which  he  leased  in  Dumfriesshire.  The  first  part 
of  this  new  period  was  the  happiest  in  his  life.  She  has 
been  immortalized  in  his  songs  :  — 

"  I  see  her  in  the  dewy  flowers, 
I  see  her  sweet  and  fair : 
I  hear  her  in  the  tunefu'  birds, 
I  hear  her  charm  the  air : 
There's  not  a  bonie  flower  that  springs 
By  fountain,  shaw,  or  green  ; 
There's  not  a  bonie  bird  that  sings, 
But  minds  me  o'  my  Jean."  1 

This  farm  proved  unprofitable.  He  appealed  to  influen- 
tial persons  for  some  position  that  would  enable  him  to 

1  /  Love  My  Jean. 


320 


THE  AGE  OF   ROMANTICISM,   178O-1837 


support  his  family  and  write  poetry.  This  was  an  age  of 
pensions,  but  not  a  farthing  of  pension  did  he  ever  get. 
He  was  made  an  exciseman  or  gauger,  at  a  salary  of  £$o 
a  year,  and  he  followed  that  occupation  for  the  few  remain- 
ing years  of  his  life. 

Robert  Burns  wrote  much  and  did  much  unworthy  of 
a  great  poet ;  but  when  Scotland  thinks  of  him,  she  quotes 
the  lines  which  he  wrote  for  Tarn  Samson  s  Elegy:  — 

"  Heav'n  rest  his  saul,  whare'er  he  be  ! 
Is  tlf  wish  o'  mony  mae  than  me : 


ROBERT   BURNS  321 

He  had  twa  faults,  or  maybe  three, 

Yet  what  remead  ? 1 

Ae  social,  honest  man  want  we." 

Burns's  Poetic  Creed.  —  We  can  understand  and  enjoy 
Burns  much  better  if  we  know  his  object  in  writing  poetry 
and  the  point  of  view  from  which  he  regarded  life.  It 
would  be  hard  to  fancy  the  intensity  of  the  shock  which 
the  school  of  Pope  would  have  felt  on  reading  this  state- 
ment of  the  poor  plowman's  poetic  creed  :  — 

"  Give  me  ae  spark  o1  Nature's  fire, 
That's  a'  the  learning  I  desire  ; 
Then  tho'  1  drudge  thro'  dub  an'  mire 
At  pleugh  or  cart, 
My  Muse,  though  hamely  in  attire, 
May  touch  the  heart."  2 

Burns's  heart  had  been  touched  with  the  loves  and  sor- 
rows of  life,  and  it  was  his  ambition  to  sing  so  naturally 
of  these  as  to  touch  the  hearts  of  others. 

With  such  an  object  in  view,  he  did  not  disdain  to  use 
in  his  best  productions  much  of  the  Scottish  dialect,  the 
vernacular  of  the  plowman  and  the  shepherd.  The  lit- 
erary men  of  Edinburgh,  who  would  rather  have  been 
convicted  of  a  breach  of  etiquette  than  of  a  Scotticism, 
tried  to  induce  him  to  write  pure  English,  but  the  Scotch 
words  which  he  first  heard  from  his  mother's  lips  se.emed 
to  possess  more  "o'  Nature's  fire."  He  ended  by  touch- 
ing the  heart  of  Scotland  and  making  her  feel  more  proud 
of  this  dialect,  of  him,  and  of  herself. 

Union  of  the  Elizabethan  with  the  Revolutionary  Spirit. 
—  In  no  respect  does  the  poetry  of  Burns  more  completely 
part  company  with  the  productions  of  the  classical  school 

1  remedy.  2  Epistle  to  John  Lapraik. 


322  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

than  in  the  expression  of  feeling.  The  emotional  fire  of 
Elizabethan  times  was  restored  to  literature.  No  other 
poet  except  Shakespeare  has  ever  written  more  nobly  im- 
passioned love  songs.  Burns's  song  beginning  :  — 

"Ae  fond  kiss  and  then  we  sever" 

seemed  to  both  Byron  and  Scott  to  contain  the  essence  of 
a  thousand  love  tales.  This  unaffected,  passionate  treat- 
ment of  love  had  long  been  absent  from  our  literature, 
but  intensity  of  genuine  feeling  reappeared  in  Burns's 
Highland  Mary,  I  Love  My  Jean,  Farewell  to  Nancy,  To 
Mary  in  Heaven,  and  O  Wert  Thou  in  the  Cauld  Blast, 
which  last  Mendelssohn  thought  exquisite  enough  to  set 
to  music.  The  poetry  of  Burns  throbs  with  varying  emo- 
tions. It  has  been  well  said  that  the  essence  of  the  lyric 
is  "to  describe  the  passion  of  the  moment.  Burns  is  a 
master  in  this  field. 

The  spirit  of  revolution  against  the  bondage  and  cold 
formalism  of  the  past  made  the  poor  man  feel  that  his 
place  in  the  world  was  as  dignified,  his  happiness  as  im- 
portant, as  that  of  the  rich.  A  feeling  of  sympathy  for 
the  oppressed  and  the  helpless  also  reached  beyond  man 
to  animals.  Burns  wrote  touching  lines  about  a  mouse 
whose  nest  was,  one  cold  November  day,  destroyed  by 
his  plow.  When  the  wild  eddying  swirl  of  the  snow  beat 
around  his  cot,  his  heart  went  out  to  the  poor  sheep,  cattle, 
and  birds. 

Burns  can,  therefore,  claim  kinship  with  the  Eliza- 
bethans because  of  his  love  songs,  which  in  depth  of 
feeling  and  beauty  of  natural  utterance  show  something 
of  Shakespeare's  magic.  In  addition  to  this,  the  poetry 
of  Burns  voices  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  Revolution. 

Treatment  of  Nature.  —  In  his  verses,  the  autumn  winds 


ROBERT   BURNS  323 

blow  over  yellow  corn ;  the  fogs  melt  in  limpid  air ;  the 
birches  extend  their  fragrant  arms  dressed  in  woodbine ; 
the  lovers  are  coming  through  the  rye ;  the  daisy  spreads 
her  snowy  bosom  to  the  sun;  the  "westlin"  winds,  blow 
fragrant  with  dewy  flowers  and  musical  with  the  melody 
of  birds;  the  brook  flows  past  the  lovers'  Eden,  where 
summer  first  unfolds  her  robes  and  tarries  longest,  because 
of  the  rarest  bewitching  enchantment  of  the  poet's  tale  told 
there. 

In  his  poetry  those  conventional  birds,  the  lark  and  the 
nightingale,  do  not  hold  the  chief  place.  His  verses  show 
that  the  source  of  his  knowledge  of  birds  is  not  to  be 
sought  in  books.  We  catch  glimpses  of  grouse  cropping 
heather  buds,  of  whirring  flocks  of  partridges,  of  the 
sooty  coot  and  the  speckled  teal,  of  the  fisher  herons,  of 
the  green-crested  lapwing,  of  clamoring  craiks  among 
fields  of  flowering  clover,  of  robins  cheering  the  pensive 
autumn,  of  lintwhites  chanting  among  the  buds,  of  the 
mavis  singing  drowsy  day  to  rest. 

It  is  true  that  on  the  poetic  stage  of  Burns,  man  always 
stands  in  the  foreground.  Nature  is  employed  in  order 
to  give  human  emotion  a  proper  background.  He  chose 
those  aspects  of  nature  which  harmonized  with  his  present 
mood,  but  the  natural  objects  in  his  pages  are  none  the 
less  enjoyable  for  fhat  reason.  Sometimes  his  songs 
complain  if  nature  seems  gay  when  he  is  sad,  but  this 
contrast  is  employed  to  throw  a  stronger  light  on  his  woes. 

General  Characteristics.  —  It  is  said  that  the  birthplace 
of  Burns  is  visited  each  year  by  more  people  than  go  to 
see  Shakespeare's  House.  What  qualities  has  Burns 
sufficient  to  account  for  this  ? 

The  fact  that  the  Scotch  are  an  unusually  patriotic 
people  and  make  many  pilgrimages  to  the  land  of  Burns 


324  THE  AGE  OF   ROMANTICISM,   1780-1837 

is  only  a  partial  answer  to  this  question.  The  complete 
answer  is  to  be  found  in  a  study  of  his  characteristics.  In 
the  first  place,  with  his  "spark  o'  Nature's  fire,"  he  has 
touched  the  hearts  of  more  of  the  rank  and  file  of  human- 
ity than  even  Shakespeare  himself.  The  songs  of  Burns 
minister  in  the  simplest  and  most  direct  way  to  every  one 
of  the  common  feelings  of  the  human  heart.  Shakespeare 
surpasses  all  others  in  painting  universal  human  nature, 
but  he  is  not  always  simple.  Sometimes  his  audience  con- 
sists of  only  the  cultured  few. 

Especially  enjoyable  is  the  humor  of  Burns,  which 
usually  displays  a  kindly  and  intuitive  sympathy  with 
human  weaknesses.  Tarn  o>  Shanter,  his  greatest  poem, 
keeps  the  reader  smiling  or  laughing  from  beginning  to 
end.  When  the  Scottish  Muse,  proudly  placed  on  his 
brow  the  holly  wreath,  she  happily  emphasized  two  of  his 
conspicuous  qualities,  his  love  and  mirth,  when  she 

said :  — 

"  I  saw  thee  eye  the  general  mirth 

With  boundless  love." l 

Burns  is  one  of  the  great  masters  of  lyrical  verse.  He 
preferred  that  form.  He  wrote  neither  epic  nor  dramatic 
poetry.  He  excels  in  "short  swallow  flights  of  song." 

There  are  not  many  ways  in  which  a  poet  can  keep 
larger  audiences  or  come  nearer  to  them  than  by  writing 
verses  which  naturally  lend  themselves  to  daily  song. 
There  are  few  persons,  from  the  peasant  to  the  lord,  who 
have  not  sung  some  of  Burns's  songs,  such  as^  An/d  Lang 
Syne,  Coming  through  the  Rye,  John  Anderson  my  Jo,  or 
Scots  Wha  hae  wi  Wallace  Bled.  Since  the  day  of  his 
death,  the  audiences  of  Robert  Burns  have  for  these 
reasons  continually  grown  larger. 

1  Tht  Vision. 


SIR   WALTER   SCOTT 


325 


SIR  WALTER  SCOTT,   1771-1832 

Life.  — Walter  Scott,  the  son  of  a  solicitor,  was  born  in 
Edinburgh  in  1771.  He  was  such  an  invalid  in  childhood 
that  he  was  illowed  to  follow  his  own  bent  without  much 
attempt  at  f«mal  education.  He  was  taken  to  the  coun- 
try, where  ne  acquired  a  lasting  fondness  for  animals  and 
wild  scenery.  With  his  first  few  shillings  he  bought  the 
collection  of  early  ballads  and  songs  known  as  Percy's 
Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry.  Of  this  he  says  :  "  I 
do  not  beiiey,e  I  ever  read  a  book  half  so  frequently,  or 


326  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

with  half  the  enthusiasm."  His  grandmother  used  to 
delight  him  with  tales  of  adventure  on  the  Scottish  border. 

Later,  Scott  went  to  the  Edinburgh  High  School  and  to 
the  University.  At  the  High  School  he  showed  wonder- 
ful genius  for  telling  stories  to  the  boys.  "  I  made  a 
brighter  figure  in  the  yards  than  in  the  class"  he  says  of 
himself  at  this  time.  This  early  practice  in  relating  tales 
and  noting  what  held  the  attention  of  his  classmates  was 
excellent  training  for  the  future  Wizard  of  the  North. 

After  an  apprenticeship  to  his  father,  the  son  was 
called  to  the  bar  and  began  the  practice  of  law.  He  often 
left  his  office  to  travel  over  the  Scottish  counties  in  search 
of  legendary  ballads,  songs,  and  traditions,  a  collection 
of  which  he  published  under  the  title  of  Minstrelsy  of 
the  Scottish  Border-  In  1799  he  married  a  Miss  Char- 
lotte Carpenter,  who  had  an  income  of  £$00  a  year. 
He  was  shortly  after  appointed  sheriff  of  Selkirkshire 
at  an  annual  salary  of  ^300,  and  he  found  himself  able 
to  neglect  the  law  for  literature.  His  early  freedom  from 
poverty  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  condition  of  his 
fellow-Scotsman,  Robert  Burns. 

During  the  period  between  thirty  and  forty,  he  wrote  his 
best  poems.  Not  until  he  was  nearly  forty-three  did  he  dis- 
cover where  his  greatest  powers  lay.  He  then  published 
Waverley,  the  first  of  a  series  of  novels  known  by  that 
general  name.  During  the  remaining  eighteen  years  of 
his  life,  he  wrote  twenty-nine  novels,  besides  many  other 
works,  such  as  the  Life  of  Napoleon,  in  nine  volumes,  and 
an  entertaining  work  on  Scottish  history,  under  the  title 
of  Talcs  of  a  Grandfather. 

The  crisis  which  showed  Scott's  sterling  character 
came  in  the  winter  of  1825-1826,  when  an  Edinburgh 
publishing  firm  in  which  he  was  interested  failed  and 


SIR   WALTER  SCOT!' 


327 


left  on  his  shoulders  a  debt  of  ;£  117,000.  Had  he  been 
a  man  of  less  honor,  he  might  have  taken  advantage  of 
the  bankrupt  law,  and  then  his  future  earnings  would 
have  been  free  from  past  claims.  He  refused  to  take  any 
step  which  would  remove  his  obligation  to  pay  the  debt. 
At  the  age  of  fifty-four,  he  abandoned  his  happy  dream 
of  founding  the  house  of  Scott  of  Abbotsford  and  sat 


ABBOTSFORD,    HOME    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

.  * 

down  to  pay  off  the  debt  with  his  pen.  The  example  of 
such  a  life  is  better  than  the  finest  sermon  on  honor. 
He  wrote  with  almost  inconceivable  rapidity.  His  novel 
Woodstock,  the  product  of  three  months'  work,  brought 
^8228.  In  four  years  he  paid  ,£70,000  to  his  creditors. 
One  day  the  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks  because  he 
could  no  longer  force  his  fingers  to  grasp  the  pen.  The 
King  offered  him  a  man  of  war  in  which  to  make  a  voyage 


328  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

to  the  Mediterranean.  Hoping  to  regain  his  health,  Scott 
made  the  trip,  but  the  rest  came  too  late.  He  returned  to 
Abbotsford  in  a  sinking  condition,  and  died  in  1832,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-one. 

Poetry.  —  Scott's  three  greatest  poems  are  The  Lay  of 
the  Last  Minstrel (1805),  Marmion  (1808),  and  The  Lady 
of  the  Lake  (1810).  They  belong  to  the  distinct  class 
of  story-telling  poetry.  Like  many  of  the  ballads  in 
Percy's  collection,  these  poems  are  stories  of  old  feuds 
between  the  Highlander  and  the  Lowlander,  and  between 
the  border  lords  of  England  and  Scotland.  These  ro- 
mantic tales  of  heroic  battles,  thrilling  incidents  some- 
times supernatural,  and  love  adventures,  are  told  in  fresh, 
vigorous  verse,  which  breathes  the  free  air  of  wild  nature 
and  moves  with  the  prance  of  a  war  horse.  Outside  of 
Homer,  we  can  nowhere  find  a  better  description  of  a 
battle  than  in  the  sixth  canto  of  Marmion :  A  Tale  of 
Flodden  Field:  — 

"  They  close,  in  clouds  of  smoke  and  dust, 
With  sword  sway  and  with  lance's  thrust ; 
And  such  a  yell  was  there, 
Of  sudden  and  portentous  birth, 
As  if  men  fought  upon  the  earth, 
And  fiends  in  upper  air, 

And  in  the  smoke  the  pennons  flew, 
As  in  the  storm  the  white  sea  mew." 

The  Lady  of  the  Lake,  an  extremely  interesting  story 
of  romantic  love  and  adventure,  has  been  the  most  popu- 
lar of  Scott's  poems.  Loch  Katrine  and  the  Trossachs, 
where  the  scene  of  the  opening  cantos  is  laid,  have  since 
his  day  been  thronged  with  tourists. 

The  most  prominent  characteristic  of  Scott's  poetry  is 
its  energetic  movement.  Many  schoolboys  know  by  heart 


SIR   WALTER  SCOTT  329 

those  dramatic  lines  which  express  Marmion's  defiance 
of  Douglas,  and  the  ballad  of  Lochinvar,  which  is  alive 
with  the  movements  of  tireless  youth.  These  poems 
have  an  interesting  story  to  tell,  not  of  the  thoughts,  but 
of  the  deeds,  of  the  characters.  Scott  is  strangely  free 
from  nineteenth  century  introspection. 

He  delights  in  wild  outdoor  life  and  in  observing  na- 
ture. In  his  verses  we  find  that  his  eye  has  rested  lov- 
ingly on  the  gray  birch,  the  mountain  ash  with  its  narrow 
leaves  and  red  berries,  the  dew  on  the  heath  flower,  and  the 
speckled  thrush  singing  a  good  morning  to  the  water  lily 
and  to  the  green  leaves  just  stirring  from  their  breezeless 
sleep  in  the  gray  mist.  He  does  not  implant  his  emo- 
tions in  nature,  like  Burns,  or  put  there  a  nature  spirit, 
like  Wordsworth. 

We  feel  that  Scott  lacks  the  penetration  and  the  spiritu- 
ality of  Wordsworth.  We  can  hardly  imagine  Scott  say- 
ing with  Wordsworth :  — 

"  To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 1 

Like  Burns,  Scott  appeals  to  the  simpler  feelings,  but 
Burns's  plummet  fathoms  far  deeper  recesses  of  the  hu- 
man heart.  Nevertheless,  Scott's  poems  are  specially 
well  adapted  to  develop  an  appreciation  for  poetry  that 
probes  deeper  into  life.  He  holds  the  attention  of  the 
young  at  a  time  when  a  study  of  more  philosophical  poetry 
might  awaken  a  lasting  distaste  for  all  verse. 

Historical  Fiction. — Scott  began  in  verse  his  story  tell- 
ing, which  he  continued  more  effectively  in  prose.  He 
stopped  writing  poetry  not  only  because  he  saw  that  Byron 
was  surpassing  him  in  this  field.  Scott  had  also  discov- 

1  Ode  on  Intimations  of  Immortality. 


33O  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

ered  that  his  own  great  power  lay  in  writing  prose  tales 
which  no  living  competitor  could  equal.  In  1814  he  pub- 
lished Waverley,  a  story  of  the  attempt  of  the  Jacobite 
Pretender  to  recover  the  English  throne  in  1745.  Seven- 
teen of  Scott's  works  of  fiction  are  historical. 

When  the  young  wish  a  vivid  picture  of  the  time  of 
Richard  Cceur  de  Lion,  of  the  knight  and  the  castle,  of 
the  Saxon  swineherd  Gurth  and  of  the  Norman  master 
who  ate  the  pork,  they  may  read  Ivan/toe.  If  one 
desires  some  reading  which  will  make  the  Crusaders  live 
again,  one  finds  it  in  the  pages  of  The  Talisman.  When 
we  wish  an  entertaining  story  of  the  brilliant  days  of 
Elizabeth,  we  turn  to  Kenilivorth.  If  we  are  moved  by 
admiration  for  the  Scotch  Convenanters  to  seek  a  story 
of  their  times,  we  have  Scott's  finest  historical  tale,  Old 
Mortality.  Shortly  after  this  story  appeared,  Lord  Hol- 
land was  asked  his  opinion  of  it.  "  Opinion ! "  he  ex- 
claimed;  "we  did  not  one  of  us  go  to  bed  last  night  — 
nothing  slept  but  my  gout."  The  man  who  could  thus 
charm  his  readers  was  called  the  Wizard  of  the  North. 

Scott  is  the  creator  of  the  historical  novel,  which  has 
advanced  on  the  general  lines  marked  out  by  him.  Car- 
lyle  tersely  says :  "  These  historical  novels  have  taught 
all  men  this  truth,  which  looks  like  a  truism,  and  yet  was 
as  good  as  unknown  to  writers  of  history  and  others  till  so 
taught :  that  the  by-gone  ages  of  the  world  were  actually 
filled  by  living  men,  not  by  protocols,  state  papers,  con- 
troversies, and  abstractions  of  men." 

The  history  in  Scott's  novels  is  not  always  absolutely 
accurate.  To  meet  the  exigencies  of  his  plot,  he  some- 
times takes  liberties  with  the  events  of  history,  and  there 
are  occasional  anachronisms  in  his  work.  Readers  may 
rest  assured,  however,  that  the  most  prominent  strokes  of 


SIR  WALTER  SCOTT  331 

his  brush  will  convey  a  sufficiently  accurate  idea  of  certain 
phases  of  history.  Although  the  hair  lines  in  his  pictures 
may  be  neglected,  most  persons  can  learn  more  truth  from 
studying  his  gallery  of  historic  scenes  than  from  poring 
over  volumes  of  documents  and  state  papers.  Scott  does 
not  look  at  life  from  every  point  of  view.  The  reader  of 
IvanJioe,  for  instance,  should  be  cautioned  against  thinking 
that  Scott  presents  a  complete  picture  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
He  shows  the  bright,  the  noble  side  of  chivalry,  but  not 
all  the  brutality,  ignorance,  and  misery  of  the  times. 

Novels  which  are  not  Historical. — Twelve  of  Scott's  novels 
contain  but  few  attempts  to  represent  historic  events.  The 
greatest  of  these  novels  are  Guy  Mannering,  The  Heart  of 
Midlothian,  The  Antiquary,  and  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor. 

Scott  said  that  his  most  rapid  work  was  his  best.  The 
finest  product  of  his  pen,  Guy  Mannering,  was  written  in 
six  weeks.  It  is  an  admirable  picture  of  Scottish  life  and 
manners.  Many  of  its  characters,  like  Dominie  Sampson, 
the  pedagogue,  Meg  Merrilies,  the  gypsy,  and  Dick  Hat- 
teraick,  the  smuggler,  have  more  life  than  half  the  people 
we  meet. 

A  century  before,  Pope  said  that  most  women  had  no 
characters  at  all.  His  writings  tend  to  show  that  this  was 
his  real  conviction,  as  it  was  that  of  many  others  during 
the  time  when  Shakespeare  was  little  read.  The  Heart 
of  Midlothian  presents  in  Jeanie  Deans  a  woman  whose 
character  and  feminine  qualities  have  won  the  admiration 
of  the  world.  Scott  could  not  paint  women  in  the  higher 
walks  of  life.  He  was  so  chivalrous  that  he  was  prone  to 
make  such  women  too  perfect,  but  his  humble  Scotch  lass 
Jeanie  Deans  is  one  of  his  greatest  creations. 

When  we  note  the  vast  number  of  characters  drawn  by 
his  pen,  we  are  astonished  to  find  that  he  repeats  so  little. 


332  THE  AGE  OF   ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

Many  novelists  write  only  one  original  novel.  Their  suc- 
ceeding works  are  merely  repetitions  of  the  first.  The 
hero  may  have  put  on  a  new  suit  of  clothes  and  the 
heroine  may  wear  a  new  style  of  bonnet,  or  each  may  be 
given  a  new  mannerism,  or  a  peculiar  form  of  expression, 
but  there  is  nothing  really  new  in  character  or  in  incident. 
For  year  after  year,  Scott  wrote  with  wonderful  rapidity, 
without  repeating  his  characters  or  his  plots. 

General  Characteristics.  —  All  critics  are  impressed  with 
the  healthiness  of  Scott's  work,  with  its  freedom  from  what 
is  morbid  or  debasing.  His  stories  display  marked  energy 
and  movement.  There  is  little  subtle  analysis  of  feelings 
and  motives.  He  aimed  at  broad  and  striking  effects. 
We  do  not  find  much  development  of  character  in  his 
pages.  "  His  characters  have  the  brilliance  and  the  fixity 
of  portraits." 

Scott  does  not  particularly  care  to  delineate  the  intense 
passion  of  love.  Only  one  of  his  novels,  The  Bride  of 
Lammermoor,  is  aflame  with  this  overmastering  emotion. 
He  delights  in  adventure.  He  places  his  characters  in 
unusual  and  dangerous  situations,  and  he  has  succeeded  in 
making  us  feel  his  own  interest  in  the  outcome.  He  has 
on  a  larger  scale  many  of  the  qualities  which  we  may  note 
in  the  American  novelist  Cooper,  whose  best  stories  are 
tales  of  adventure  in  the  forest  or  on  the  sea.  Like  him, 
Scott  shows  lack  of  care  in  the  construction  of  sentences. 
Few  of  the  most  cultured  people  of  to-day  could,  however, 
write  at  Scott's  breakneck  speed  and  make  as  few  slips. 
Scott  has  far  more  humor  and  variety  than  Cooper. 

Scott's  romanticism  is  seen  in  his  love  for  supernatural 
agencies,  which  figure  in  many  of  his  stories.  His  fond- 
ness for  adventure,  for  mystery,  for  the  rush  of  battle,  for 
color  and  sharp  contrast,  and  his  love  for  the  past  are  also 


JANE  AUSTEN  333 

romantic  traits.  He,  however,  sometimes  falls  into  the 
classical  fault  of  over-description  and  of  leaving  too  little 
to  the  imagination. 

In  the  variety  of  his  creations,  he  is  surpassed  by  no 
other  novelist.  He  did  more  than  any  other  pioneer  to 
aid  fiction  in  dethroning  the  drama.  His  influence  can  be 
seen  in  the  historical  novels  of  almost  every  nation. 

JANE  AUSTEN,   1775-1817 

Life  and  Works.  —  While  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  laying 
the  foundations  of  his  large  family  estates  and  recounting 
the  story  of  battles,  chivalry,  royalty,  and  brigandage,  a 
quiet,  sunny  little  woman,  almost  unmindful  of  the  great 
world,  was  enlivening  her  father's  parsonage  and  writing 
about  the  clergy,  the  old  maids,  the  short-sighted  mothers, 
the  marriageable  daughters,  and  other  people  that  figure  in 
village  life.  This  cheery,  sprightly  young  woman,  whom 
her  acquaintances  never  once  suspected  of  the  guilt  of 
authorship,  was  Jane  Austen,  a  daughter  of  the  rector  of 
Steventon,  Hampshire-. 

The  life  of  Jane  Austen  was  simple,  wholesome,  unpre- 
tending, and  happy.  She  possessed  both  wit  and  beauty, 
and  was  ready  to  enjoy  any  festivities  which  her  small 
world  afforded.  She  was  clever  in  turning  out  tales  for 
her  nephews  and  nieces  and  quick  to  seize  upon  the  lead- 
ing points  in  character.  She  studied  carefully  the  folk 
about  her,  and  she  was  one  of  the  first  of  novelists  to 
chronicle  the  lives  of  homely,  commonplace  people. 

Pride  and  Prejudice  is  generally  considered  her  best 
novel,  though  Sense  and  Sensibility,  Emma,  and  Mansfield 
Park  all  have  their  ardent  admirers.  The  scenes  of 
these  stories  are  laid  in  small  English  towns,  with  which 


334 


THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


the  author  was  thoroughly  familiar,  and  the  characters  are 
taken  from  the  middle  class  and  the  gentry. 

There  are  no  startling  discoveries  and  mysterious  secrets 
in  her  works.  Simple  domestic  episodes  and  ordinary 
people,  living  somewhat  monotonous  and  narrow  lives, 
satisfy  her,  and  she  exhibits  wonderful  skill  in  fashioning 
these  into  slight  but  entertaining  narratives.  In  Pride  and 
Prejudice,  for  example,  she  creates  some  refreshing  situa- 
tions by  opposing  Philip. Darcy's  pride  to  Elizabeth  Ben- 
net's  prejudice,  and  manages  the  long-delayed  reconciliation 


WILLIAM   WORDSWORTH  335 

between  these  two  lovers  with  a  tact  which  shows  true 
genius  and  a  knowledge  of  the  human  heart. 

A  strong  feature  of  Jane  Austen's  novels  is  her  subtle, 
careful  manner  of  drawing  character.  She  perceives  with 
an  intuitive  refinement  the  delicate  shadings  of  emotion, 
and  describes  them  with  the  utmost  care  and  detail.  Her 
heroines  are  especially  fine,  each  one  having  an  interesting 
individuality,  thoroughly  natural  and  womanly.  The  minor 
characters  in  Miss  Austen's  works  are  usually  quaint  and 
original.  She  sees  the  oddities  and  foibles  of  people  with 
the  insight  of  the  true  humorist,  and  paints  them  with 
most  dexterous  cunning. 

Walter  Scott  sums  up  Jane  Austen's  chief  characteristics 
when  he  says  in  his  big-hearted  way :  "  That  young  lady 
has  a  talent  for  describing  the  involvements  of  feelings  and 
characters  of  ordinary  life,  which  is  to  me  the  most  won- 
derful I  ever  met  with.  The  big  bow-wow  strain  T  can 
do  myself,  like  any  one  going;  but  the  exquisite  touch 
which  renders  ordinary  commonplace  things  and  charac- 
ters interesting  from  the  truth  of  the  description  and  the 
sentiment  is  denied  to  me.  What  a  pity  such  a  gifted 
creature  died  so  early  ! " 

WILLIAM  WORDSWORTH,   1770-1850 

Early  Education.  —  William  Wordsworth  was  born  in 
Cockermouth,  Cumberland,  in  1770.  He  came  from  a 
North  of  England  family,  sound  and  healthy  in  its  moral 
tone,  and  vigorous  physically.  Losing  his  parents  early  in 
life,  he  was  left  to  the  care  of  uncles  who  discharged  their 
trust  in  a  praiseworthy  manner. 

He  went  to  school  in  his  ninth  year  at  Hawkshead,  a 
village  on  the  banks  of  Esthwaite  Water.  These  school 


336 


THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


days  were  happy  ones.  He  boarded  m  the  village  with  a 
kindly  old  dame,  whom  he  has  fondly  described  in  his 
Prelude,  and,  out  of  school  hours,  he  was  free  from  the 
supervision  of  tutors.  He  writes :  "  I  was  left  at  liberty 
then,  and  in  the  vacation,  to  read  whatever  books  I  liked." 
He  was  free  also  to  go  about  as  he  pleased,  and  he 
roamed  early  and  late  over  the  mountains. 

The  healthy  out  of  door  life  hardened  the  fibers  of  his 
sturdy  frame  and  kept  him  vigorous,  and  the  constant 
sight  of  nature  in  the  wondrous  beauty  of  the  Lake 
District  awoke  love  and  reverence  in  him.  He  enjoyed 


WILLIAM    WORDSWORTH  337 

the  sports  of  hunting,  skating,  and  rowing,  but  he  says,  in 
the  Prelude :  — 

"  Not  seldom  from  the  uproar  I  retired 
Into  a  silent  bay,  or  sportively 
Glanced  sideway,  leaving  the  tumultuous  throng, 
To  cut  across  the  reflex  of  a  star 
That  fled,  and,  flying  still  before  me,  gleamed 
Upon  the  glassy  plain." 

At  such  a  moment,  almost  as  a  revelation  to  his  throbbing 

heart,  the 

"...  common  face  of  nature  spake  to  him 

Rememberable  things." 

He  says  that  in  one  of  these  moments  of  solitude 

"...  the  calm 

And  dead  still  water  lay  upon  my  mind 
Even  with  a  weight  of  pleasure,  and  the  sky, 
Never  before  so  beautiful,  sank  down 
Into  my  heart,  and  held  me  like  a  dream." 

Little  by  little,  the  glories  of  Nature  grew  upon  him,  until 
his  soul  seemed  flooded  with  unutterable  delight  when  in 
her  presence.  This  profound  passion  was  fostered  by 
his  life  in  these  early  years,  and  grew  steadily  with  his 
youth.  At  seventeen,  he  went  to  Cambridge  and,  for  a 
time,  was  dazzled  by  the  intercourse  with  town-bred  men, 
but  the  infatuation  was  of  short  duration,  and  his  four 
years  at  college  were  the  least  congenial  of  his  life. 

Influence  of  the  French  Revolution.  —  His  travels  on  the 
continent  in  his  last  vacation  and  after  his  graduation 
brought  him  in  contact  with  the  French  Revolution,  and 
he  came  under  its  spell,  as  did  most  of  the  young,  enthu- 
siastic men  of  the  time.  His  hopes  were  stirred  and  his 
imagination  fired  with  dreams  of  an  ideal  republic,  which 
he  fancied  would  arise  from  the  Revolution.  He  says:  — 


338  THE  AGE  OF   ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

"  I  gradually  withdrew 
Into  a  noisier  world,  and  thus  ere  long 
Became  a  patriot ;  and  my  heart  was  all 
Given  to  the  people, -and  my  love  was  theirs."  : 

He  was  prepared  to  throw  himself  personally  into  the 
struggle,  when  his  relatives  recalled  him  to  England  to 
face  the  ugly  specter  of  poverty.  The  rude  shock  came 
too  suddenly  upon  his  ardent  aspirations,  and,  following 
closely  upon  it,  came  the  failure  of  the  revolutionists,  the 
period  of  anarchy  and  imperialism  in  France.  He  sank 
into  a  dejection  as  deep  as  his  hopes  had  been  high,  and, 
as  he  slowly  recovered  from  his  disappointment,  he 
became  more  and  more  conservative  in  his  politics,  and 
less  in  sympathy  with  any  violent  reactions.  For  this  he 
was  censured  by  Byron,  Shelley,  and  other  strong  adherents 
of  liberty,  but  such  moderation  was  more  natural  to  Words- 
worth than  the  excitement  of  his  early  years.  To  the  end 
of  his  days,  he  never  failed  to  utter  for  genuine  liberty  a 
hopeful,  though  calm  and  tempered  note. 

Maturity  and  Declining  Years.  —  He  returned  from 
France  in  1792.  In  1795  a  bequest  of  .£900  relieved 
the  financial  strain  which  had  caused  him  anxiety,  and 
secured  for  him  and  his  sister  Dorothy  a  modest  main- 
tenance. They  went  back  to  the  Lake  District,  in  which, 
save  for  an  occasional  tour,  they  passed  the  rest  of  their 
lives.  The  two  places  most  associated  with  the  poet  are 
Grasmere,  where  he  wrote  the  best  of  his  poetry  between 
the  years  1798  and  1808,  and  Rydal  Mount,  where  he 
lived  in  his  later  years.  Dorothy  was  his  lifelong  com- 
panion. She  won  him  back  from  his  hopelessness  over 
the  Revolution  and  urged  upon  him  the  duty  of  devoting 
himself  to  poetry.  Their  favorite  pastime  .was  walking. 

1  The  Prelude,  Book  IX. 


WILLIAM   WORDSWORTH 


339 


De  Quincey  estimates  that  Wordsworth,  during  the  course 
of  his  life,  must  have  walked  as  many  as  175,000  miles. 


1 

I 


•  HP     V* 

^i— •-.  -^:-^v': 


_ 


BV 


WORDSWORTH  S     HOME    AT     GRASMERE  -  DOVE    COTTAGE 

In  1802  Wordsworth  married  Mary  Hutchinson.  With 
her  income,  the  payment  of  a  debt  with  its  long  accruing 
interest,  and  the  salary  from  the  office  of  Distributor  of 
Stamps  for  the  counties  of  Cumberland  and  Westmore- 
land, Wordsworth  was  insured  against  annoyance  from 
debt,  and  given  the  leisure  to  devote  his  whole  time  to 
the  production  of  poetry. 

This  peaceful,  retired  life,  away  from  the  passionate 
contests  of  men  in  crowded  towns,  prevented  Words- 
worth from  gaining  an  accurate  knowledge  of  his  fellow- 
men.  His  absorbing  concentration  of  mind  upon  poetry 
made  him  self-centered,  and  caused  him  to  disparage  all 


340  THE  AGE  OF   ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

views  and  ideals  of  life  which  differed  from  his  own. 
His  temper  remained  "  stiff,"  but  his  earnestness  and 
purity  of  life  made  him,  as  his  mother  had  prophesied, 
"remarkable  for  good." 

His  poetry  was  too  far  removed  from  the  formal 
classical  style  to  be  at  once  popular  with  the  public. 
The  critics  ridiculed  him  harshly.  He  lived,  however, 
to  see  his  work  appreciated  and  to  be  rewarded  with  the 
laureateship  by  the  nation.  He  died  six  years  later,  in 
1850,  and  was  buried  in  the  Grasmere  churchyard. 

A  Poet  of  Nature.  —  Wordsworth  is  one  of  the  world's 
most  loving,  penetrative,  and  thoughtful  poets  of  Nature. 
He  found  much  of  his  greatest  joy  in  the  presence  of  her 
calm,  her  beauty,  her  external  revelations  of  a  divine  hand. 
For  him,  Nature  possessed  a  soul,  a  conscious  existence,  an 
ability  to  feel  joy  and  love.  In  these  Lines  Written  in 
Early  Spring,  he  expresses  his  faith  in  her  power  to  be 

happy  :  — 

"  And  'tis  my  faith  that  every  flower 
Enjoys  the  air  it  breathes." 

Again,  he  says  in  The  Leech-Gatherer:  — 

"  All  things  that  love  the  sun  are  out  of  doors ; 
The  sky  rejoices  in  the  morning's  birth." 

The  Intimations  of  Immortality  also  incorporates  this  belief 
in  the  conscious  soul  of  nature  :  — 

"  The  moon  doth  with  delight 
Look  round  her  when  the  heavens  are  bare." 

This  manner  of  investing  nature  with  sentiency  is 
peculiarly  characteristic  of  Wordsworth.  He  was  not 
content  to  experience  only  that  childlike  joy  which  sat- 
isfied Cowper  and  Burns,  or,  like  Keats  and  Tennyson,  to 


WILLIAM   WORDSWORTH  341 

paint  only  the  external  features  of  nature.  With  rare 
skill  Wordsworth  looked  beyond  the  color  of  the  flower, 
the  outline  of  the  hills,  the  beauty  of  the  clouds,  to  the 
spirit  which  breathed  through  them,  and  he  communed 
with  "Nature's  self  which  is  the  breath  of  God."  Nature, 
therefore,  did  more  than  please  his  senses ;  she  appealed 
to  his  heart ;  she  aroused  his  noblest  feelings  and  filled 
him  with  a  worship  that  was  a  part  of  his  religion. 

In  his  close  study  of  her  secrets,  he  learned  her  outward 
appearances,  and  he  wrote  some  beautiful  descriptions, 
such  as  the  following  upon  a  dandelion  seed:  — 

"Suddenly  halting  now,  a  lifeless  stand! 
And  starting  off  again  with  freak  as  sudden  ; 
In  all  its  sportive  wanderings,  all  the  while 
Making  report  of  an  invisible  breeze, 
That  was  its  wings,  its  chariot,  and  its  horse, 
Its  very  playmate  and  its  moving  soul." 

But  Wordsworth  is  not  preeminently  the  purely  descrip- 
tive poet,  as  Tennyson  is.  Wordsworth  was  too  much 
engrossed  with  the  feeling  inspired  by  the  scene,  and 
with  its  imaginative  interpretation,  to  attend  strictly  to 
sketching  the  outlines.  Note  these  lines  from  one  of  his 
sonnets  :  — 

"The  gentleness  of  Heaven  is  on  the  sea: 
Listen!  the  mighty  Being  is  awake 
And  doth  with  his  eternal  motion  make 
A  sound  like  thunder  —  everlastingly."  1 

There  is  not  here  a  vivid  picture  of  the  sea,  such  as 
Tennyson  would  have  given,  but  there  is  the  impression, 
the  feeling,  the  thought  inspired  in  an  imaginative  mind 
by  the  sea.  Wordsworth  is  unrivaled  in  his  capacity  to 

1  Sonnet :  "  It  is  a  beauteous  evening,  calm  and  free." 
HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  22 


342  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

present  the  inherent  atmosphere  and  spirit  of  a  scene. 
In  the  lines 

"  With  heart  as  calm  as  lakes  that  sleep, 

In  frosty  moonlight  glistening; 

Or  mountain  rivers,  where  they  creep 

Along  a  channel  smooth  and  deep, 

To  their  own  far-off  murmurs  listening," 1 

he  suggests  the  very  soul  of  solitude.  Nothing  else 
could  have  done  this  so  ideally  as  the  streams  that  hear 
no  sound  but  the  echo  of  their  own  lonely  murmurings. 
It  is  in  this  contemplative  and  imaginative  interpretation 
of  nature  that  Wordsworth  is  a  master  poet. 

Narrative  Poems:  Poetry  of  Man.  — Wordsworth  is  a 
poet  of  man  as  well  as  of  nature.  The  love  for  nature 
came  to  him  first,  but  out  of  it  grew  his  regard  for  the 
people  who  lived  near  to  nature. 

He  traces  the  growth  of  these  feelings  in  The  Prelude 
(1850),  an  autobiographical  poem,  unrivaled  in  its  class. 
Wordsworth  also  tells  in  this  poem  how  the  French 
Revolution  roused  him  to  the  worth  of  each  individual 
soul  and  to  a  sense  of  the  equality  of  all  humanity  at 
the  bar  of  character  and  conscience.  As  his  lyrics  show 
the  sympathy  which  he  had  for  the  outside  world,  so  his 
narrative  poems  illustrate  the  second  dominant  characteristic 
of  the  age,  the  strong  sense  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

Michael,  one  of  the  very  greatest  of  his  productions, 
displays  a  tender  and  living  sympathy  with  the  humble 
shepherd.  The  simple  dignity  of  Michael's  character, 
his  frugal  and  honorable  life,  his  affection  for  his  son, 
for  his  sheep,  and  for  his  forefathers'  old  home,  appealed 
to  the  heart  of  the  poet.  He  loved  his  subject  and  wrote 
the  poem  with  that  indescribable  simplicity  which  makes 

1  Memory. 


WILLIAM   WORDSWORTH  343 

the  tale,  the  verse,  and  the  tone  of  thought  and  feeling 
form  together  one  perfect  and  indissoluble  whole.  The 
Leech-Gatherer  and  the  story  of  "  Margaret "  in  the 
Excursion  also  deal  with  lowly  characters  and  exhibit 
Wordsworth's  power  of  pathos  and  simple  earnestness. 
He  could  not  present  complex  personalities,  but  these 
characters,  which  belonged  to  the  landscapes  of  the 
Lake  District  and  partook  of  its  calm  and  its  simplicity, 
he  drew  with  a  sure  hand. 

His  longest  narrative  poem  is  the  Excursion  (1814), 
which  is  in  nine  books.  It  contains  fine  passages  of 
verse  and  some  of  his  sanest  and  maturest  philosophy, 
but  the  work  is  not  the  masterpiece  which  he  hoped  to 
make.  It  is  tedious,  prosy,  and  without  action  of  any 
kind.  The  style  is  heavy,  for  the  most  part,  and  becomes 
pure  and  easy  only  in  some  description  of  a  mountain 
peak  or  in  the  recital  of  a  tale,  like  that  of  "  Margaret." 

General  Characteristics.  —  "  Meditation  and  sympathy, 
not  action  and  passion,  were  the  two  main  strings  of  his 
serene  and  stormless  lyre.  On  these  no  hand  ever  held 
more  gentle  yet  sovereign  rule  than  Wordsworth's,"  says 
Swinburne.  Wordsworth  possessed  no  dramatic  power,  no 
ability  to  enter  into  another's  personality.  His  genius  was 
introspective.  Moreover,  he  seemed  a  stranger  to  tem- 
pestuous passions  and  fierce  burning  love.  His  nature  was 
strong,  restrained,  and  calm.  The  joys  of  nature,  the  ele- 
mental emotions  of  humanity,  and  the  necessity  of  obey- 
ing the  moral  law,  are  his  subjects.  This  last  subject  is 
treated  with  wonderful  elevation  of  language  in  his  Ode  to 
Duty  and  Character  of  the  Happy  Warrior, 

Wordsworth's  compass  is  limited,  but  within  that  com- 
pass he  is  surpassed  by  no  poet  since  Milton.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  great  poet  ever  wrote  more  that  is  worth- 


344  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

less.  Matthew  Arnold  did  much  for  Wordsworth's  renown 
by  collecting  his  priceless  poems  and  publishing  them  apart 
from  the  mediocre  work.  Among  the  fine  productions, 
his  sonnets  occupy  a  high  place.  Only  Shakespeare  and 
Milton  in  our  language  excel  him  in  this  form  of  verse. 

The  most  pronounced  characteristic  of  Wordsworth's 
style  is  its  austere  simplicity.  When  he  was  most  truly 
great,  he  seemed  to  write  as  he  breathed,  not  only  naturally 
but  involuntarily.  He  was  unconscious  of  the  power  which 
he  wielded.  When  he  attempted  to  command  it  at  will,  he 
failed,  as  in  the  dull,  lifeless  lines  of  the  Excursion.  On  the 
contrary,  of  such  a  work  as  Michael,  The  Solitary  Reaper, 
or  The  Fountain,  we  may  say  with  Matthew  Arnold :  "  It 
might  seem  that  Nature  not  only  gave  him  the  matter  for 
his  poem,  but  wrote  his  poem  for  him." 

We  may  take  this  line  from  Wordsworth  :  - 

"This  Sea  that  bares  her  bosom  to  the  moon,"1 
and  compare  it  with  Tennyson's  line  in  The  Princess:  — 
"A  full  sea  glazed  with  muffled  moonlight." 

Tennyson's  is  harmonious  and  the  imagery  is  exceptionally 
true  and  beautiful,  but  the  line  seems  to  have  been  elabo- 
rated and  polished  in  the  study,  while  Wordsworth's  artless 
figure  has  the  breath  of  inspiration  about  it.  An  excellent 
craftsman  might  have  produced  Tennyson's  line,  but  only 
a  genius  could  have  displayed  Wordsworth's  frequent 
natural  directness  and  ease.  He  ranks  among  the  great- 
est poets  of  English  literature ;  only  the  very  mightiest 
tower  above  him.  If  Shakespeare  occupies  the  first  place, 
Milton  the  next,  and  Chaucer  the  third,  Wordsworth  is 
entitled  to  follow  closely  after  them. 

1  Sonnet :  "The  World  is  too  much  with  us." 


SAMUEL  TAYLOR  COLERIDGE 


SAMUEL  TAYLOR  COLERIDGE,    1772-1834 

Life.  —  The  troubled  career  of  Coleridge  is  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  peaceful  life  of  Wordsworth.  Coleridge, 
the  thirteenth  child  of  a  clergyman,  was  born  in  the  year 
1772,  in  Ottery  St.  Mary,  Devonshire.  Early  in  his 
life,  the  future  poet  became  a  dreamer.  Before  he  was 
five  years  old,  he  had  read  the  Arabian  Nights.  A  few 
years  later,  the  boy's  appetite  for  books  was  so  voracious 
that  he  is  said  to  have  devoured  an  average  of  two  volumes 
a  day.  So  omnivorous  was  his  reading  and  so  broad  the 


346  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

fields  which  his  studies  finally  covered,  that  a  recent  biog- 
rapher is  led  to  say  that  Coleridge's  education  "  outstrides 
the  intellectual  equipment  of  every  Englishman  since 
Bacon."  In  this  opinion  contemporaries  concurred. 

Coleridge  went  to  Cambridge,  but  he  did  not  remain  to 
graduate.  From  this  time  he  seldom  completed  anything 
that  he  undertook.  It  was  characteristic  of  him,  stimulated 
by  the  spirit  of  the  French  Revolution,  to  dream  of  found- 
ing with  Southey  a  Pantisocracy  on  the  banks  of  the  Sus- 
quehanna.  In  this  ideal  village  across  the  sea,  the  dreamers 
were  to  work  only  two  hours  a  day  and  to  have  all  goods  in 
common.  The  demand  for  poetry  was  at  this  time  suffi- 
ciently great  for  a  bookseller  to  offer  Coleridge,  although  he 
was  as  yet  comparatively  unknown,  thirty  guineas  for  a 
volume  of  poems  and  a  guinea  and  a  half  for  each  hundred 
lines  after  finishing  that  volume.  With  such  wealth  in 
view,  Coleridge  married  a  Miss  Fricker  of  Bristol,  because 
no  single  people  could  join  the  new  ideal  commonwealth. 
Southey  married  her  sister,  but  the  young  enthusiasts  were 
forced  to  abandon  the  project  because  they  did  not  have 
sufficient  money  to  procure  passage  across  the  ocean. 

But  the  tendency  to  dream  never  forsook  Coleridge. 
One  of  his  favorite  poems  begins  with  this  line  :  — 

"  My  eyes  make  pictures  when  they  are  shut."  1 

He  recognized  his  disinclination  to  remain  long  at  work  on 
prearranged  lines,  when  he  said  :  "  I  think  that  my  soul 
must  have  preexisted  in  the  body  of  a  chamois  chaser." 

In  1797-1798  Coleridge  lived  with  his  young  wife  at 
Nether-Stowey  in  Somerset.  Wordsworth  and  his  sister 
Dorothy  moved  to  a  house  in  the  neighborhood  in  order  to 

1A  Day-Dream. 


347 


be  near  Coleridge.     The  two   young   men   and    Dorothy 
Wordsworth  seemed  to  be  exactly  fitted  to  stimulate  one 

another.  Together  they  roamed 
over  the  Quantock  Hills,  gazed 
upon  the  sea,  and  planned  The 
Rime  of  the  Ancient 
Mariner,  which  is 
one  of  the'  few 
things  that  Cole- 
ridge ever  finished. 
In  not  much  more 
than  a  year  he 
wrote  nearly  all  the 
poetry  which  has 
made  him  famous. 
Had  he  died  when 
he  was  twenty-five, 
like  Keats,  the  world 
would  probably  be  won- 
dering what  heights  of  poetic  fame  Coleridge  might  have 
reached.  He  became  addicted  to  the  use  of  opium  and 
passed  a  wretched  existence  of  thirty-six  years  longer, 
partly  in  the  Lake  District,  but  chiefly  in  London,  without 
adding  to  his  poetic  fame.  During  his  later  years  in 
London,  he  did  hack  work  for  papers,  gave  occasional 
lectures,  wrote  critical  and  philosophical  prose,  and  became 
a  talker  almost  as  noted  as  Dr.  Johnson. 

Poetry. —  The  Ancient  Mariner  (1798)  is  Coleridge's 
poetical  masterpiece.  It  is  also  one  of  the  world's  master- 
pieces. The  supernatural  sphere  into  which  it  introduces 
the  reader  is  a  remarkable  creation,  with  its  curse,  its 
polar  spirit,  the  phantom  ship,  the  seraph  band,  and  the 
magic  breeze.  The  mechanism  of  the  poem  is  almost 


COLERIDGE'S    COTTAGE    AT     NETHER-STOWEY 


348  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

flawless.  The  meter,  the  rhythm,  and  the  music  are 
superb.  Almost  every  stanza  shows  not  only  exquisite 
harmony,  but  also  the  easy  mastery  of  genius  in  dealing 
with  those  weird  scenes  which  romanticists  love.  This 
poem  should  by  all  means  be  read  entire  by  the  student. 
His  next  greatest  poem  is  the  unfinished  Christabel, 
which  in  parts  surpasses  The  Ancient  Mariner.  The 
lovely  maiden  Christabel  falls  under  the  enchantments  of 
a  mysterious  Lady  Geraldine  :  — 

"  And  Geraldine  in  maiden  wise, 
Casting  down  her  large  bright  eyes, 
With  blushing  cheek  and  courtesy  fine 
She  turn'd  her  from  Sir  Leoline ; 

And  looked  askance  at  Christabel  — 
Jesu,  Maria,  shield  her  well ! 
A  snake's  small  eye  blinks  dull  and  shy, 
And  the  lady's  eyes  they  shrunk  in  her  head, 
Each  shrunk  up  to  a  serpent's  eye." 

Even  so  did  Coleridge's  poetical  powers  shrink  up  in  what 
should  have  been  his  prime. 

The  fragment  ends  with  Christabel  under  the  spell  of 
Geraldine's  enchantments.  We  miss  the  interest  of  a  fin- 
ished story,  which  draws  so  many  readers  to  The  Ancient 
Mariner,  but  Christabel  is  thickly  sown  with  gems.  Lines 
like  these  are  filled  with  the  airiness  of  nature  :  — 

"  There  is  not  wind  enough  to  twirl 
The  one  red  leaf,  the  last  of  its  clan, 
That  dances  as  often  as  dance  it  can, 
Hanging  so  light,  and  hanging  so  high, 
On  the  topmost  twig  that  looks  up  at  the  sky." 

In  all  literature  there  has  been  no  finer  passage  written  on 
the  wounds  caused  by  broken  friendship  than  the  lines  in 
Christabel  relating  to  the  estrangement  of  Roland  and  Sir 


SAMUEL  TAYLOR   COLERIDGE  349 

Leoline.  After  reading  this  poem  and  Kubla  Khan,  an 
unfinished  dream  fragment  of  fifty-four  lines,  we  feel  that 
the  closing  lines  of  Kubla  Khan  are  peculiarly  applicable 

to  Coleridge :  — 

"  For  he  on  honey  dew  hath  fed 
And  drunk  the  milk  of  Paradise." 

Swinburne  says  of  Christabel  and  Kubla  Khan :  "  When 
it  has  been  said  that  such  melodies  were  never  heard, 
such  dreams  never  dreamed,  such  speech  never  spoken, 
the  chief  things  remain  unsaid,  unspeakable.  There  is  a 
charm  upon  these  poems  which  can  only  be  felt  in  silent 
submission  and  wonder." 

General  Characteristics  of  his  Poetry.  —  Unlike  Words- 
worth, Coleridge  is  not  the  poet  of  the  earth  and  the  com- 
mon things  of  life.  He  is  the  poet  of  air,  of  the  regions 
beyond  the  earth,  and  of  dreams.  The  supernatural  has 
never  been  invested  with  more  charm. 

He  has  rare  feeling  for  the  beautiful,  whether  in  the 
world  of  morals,  or  of  nature,  or  of  the  harmonies  of  sound. 
The  motherless  Christabel  in  her  time  of  danger  dreams  a 
beautiful  truth  of  this  divinely  governed  world :  — 

<l  But  this  she  knows,  in  joys  and  woes, 
That  saints  will  aid  if  men  will  call : 
For  the  blue  sky  bends  over  all." 

Coleridge  throws  his  whole  soul  into  the  beautiful  picture 
of  friendship,  painted  on  the  living  canvas  of  Christabel. 

His  nature  poetry  is  less  remarkable  for  photographic 
details  than  for  its  suggestiveness.  Note  this  picture  of  a 

dell:  — 

"A  green  and  silent  spot,  amid  the  hills, 

A  small  and  silent  dell  !     O'er  stiller  place, 
No  singing  skylark  ever  poised  himself." 1 

1  Fears  in  Solitude. 


350  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

The  details  of  this  picture  must  be  filled  in  by  imagination. 
He  invests  natural  objects  with  bewitching  color,  and,  in 
the  lines  following  this  quotation,  he  proceeds  to  clothe  the 
dell  in  a  soft  green  light  like  that  from  the  setting  sun 
shining  through  vernal  cornfields.  He  revels  in  the  grace 
and  beauty  of  coloring  of  even  the  water  snakes  :  — 

"  Blue,  glossy  green,  and  velvet  black, 
They  coiled  and  swam ;  and  every  track 
Was  a  flash  of  golden  fire." l 

His  melody  is  best  described  in  his  lines  from  The  Eolian 

Harp :  — 

"  Such  a  soft  floating  witchery  of  sound. 

As  twilight  Elfins  make,  when  they  at  eve 
Voyage  on  gentle  gales  from  Fairy  Land." 

Prose.  —  Coleridge's  prose,  which  is  almost  all  of  the 
philosophic  type,  left  its  influence  on  the  work  of  the 
younger  generation.  He  was  an  idealist  and  a  student  of 
the  German  metaphysicians,  whose  idealistic  teachings  he 
introduced  to  combat  the  utilitarian  and  sense-bound  phi- 
losophy of  Bentham,  Malthus,  and  Mill.  We  pass  by 
Coleridge's  Aids  to  Reflection  (1825),  the  weightiest  of  his 
metaphysical  works,  to  consider  those  works  which  possess 
a  more  vital  interest  for  the  student  of  literature. 

Coleridge's  great  work  on  criticism  is  entitled  Biogmphia 
Literaria  (2  vols.,  1817).  J.  C.  Shairp,  late  Professor  of 
Poetry  at  Oxford,  used  to  say  to  his  students:  ."There  is 
more  to  be  learned  about  poetry  from  a  few  pages  of  that 
dissertation,  confined  though  it  is  to  a  specific  kind  of  po- 
etry, than  from  all  the  reviews  that  have  been  written  in 
English  on  poets  and  their  works  from  Addison  to  the 
present  hour.  .  .  .  These  principles,  few  or  none  at  that 

1  The  Ancient  Mariner. 


SAMUEL  TAYLOR  COLERIDGE  351 

time  acknowledged,  but  they  have  since  won  the  assent  of 
all  competent  judges."  Coleridge's  general  point  of  view 
is  that  of  the  romantic  Wordsworthian  school,  but  he  does 
not  hold  Wordsworth's  belief  that  the  language  of  poetry 
and  of  common  speech  should  be  identical,  and  he  protests 
against  not  a  little  of  Wordsworth's  poetical  practice.  The 
work  abounds  in  statements  as  suggestive  and  as  stimu- 
lating as  these :  — 

"Not  the  poem  which  we  have  read,  but  that  to  which  we  return 
with  the  greatest  pleasure,  possesses  the  genuine  power  and  claims  the 
name  of  essential  poetry.  .  .  .  Our  genuine  admiration  of  a  great  poet 
is  a  continuous  undercurrent  of  feeling;  it  is  everywhere  present,  but 
seldom  anywhere  as  a  separate  excitement.  .  .  .  For  poetry  is  the 
blossom  and  the  fragrancy  of  all  human  knowledge,  human  thoughts, 
human  passions,  emotions,  language." 

His  Lectures  and  Notes  on  Shakespeare  was  an  epoch- 
making  work  in  the  criticism  of  that  dramatist.  Professor 
Shairp  says :  "  Coleridge  was  the  first  who  clearly  saw 
through  and  boldly  denounced  the  nonsense  that  had  been 
talked  about  Shakespeare's  irregularity  and  extravagance. 
.  .  .  Any  one  who  shall  master  these  notes  on  Shakespeare, 
taken  as  a  whole,  will  find  in  them  more  fine  analysis  of 
the  hidden  things  of  the  heart,  more  truthful  insight  into 
the  workings  of  passion,  than  are  to  be  found  in  whole 
treatises  of  psychology." 

One  of  Coleridge's  finest  prose  sentences,  filled  with  the 
romantic  appreciation  of  the  living  forms  of  nature,  may 
be  found  in  the  marginal  notes  to  The  Ancient  Mariner :  — 

"  In  his  loneliness  and  fixedness  he  yearneth  towards  the  journeying 
Moon,  and  the  stars  that  still  sojourn,  yet  still  move  onward ;  and 
everywhere  the  blue  sky  belongs  to  them,  and  is  their  appointed  rest, 
and  their  native  country,  and  their  own  natural  homes,  which  they  enter 
unannounced,  as  lords  that  are  certainly  expected,  and  yet  there  is  a 
silent  joy  at  their  arrival." 


352 


THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


GEORGE    NOEL    GORDON,    LORD    BYRON,   1788-1824 

Life.  —  Byron  was  born  in  London  in  1788.  His  father 
was  a  reckless,  dissipated  spendthrift,  who  deserted  his 
wife  and  child.  Mrs.  Byron  convulsively  clasped  her  son 
to  her  one  moment  and  threw  the  scissors  and  tongs  at 
him  the  next,  calling  him  "the  lame  brat,"  in  reference  to 
his  club  foot.  Such  treatment  drew  neither  respect  nor 
obedience  from  Byron,  who  inherited  the  proud,  defiant 
spirit  of  his  race.  His  accession  to  the  peerage  in  1798 


LORD  BYRON  353 

did  not  tend  to  tame  his  haughty  nature,  and  he  grew  up 
passionately  imperious  and  combative. 

He  was  ambitious,  and  he  made  excellent  progress  in 
his  studies  at  Harrow,  but  when  he  entered  Cambridge  he 
devoted  much  of  his  time  to  shooting,  swimming,  and  other 
sports,  for  which  he  was  always  famous.  In  1809  he  started 
on  a  two  years'  trip  through  Spain,  Greece,  and  the  far  East. 
Upon  his  return,  he  published  two  cantos  of  Cliilde  Haro Id's 
Pilgrimage,  which  describe  his  journey. 

This  poem  made  him  immediately  popular.  London 
society  neglected  its  old  favorite,  Scott,  and  eagerly 
sought  out  the  beautiful  young  peer  who  had  burst  sud- 
denly upon  it.  Poem  after  poem  was  produced  by  this 
lion  of  society,  and  each  one  was  received  with  enthusiasm 
and  delight.  Probably  no  other  English  poet  knew  such 
instant  widespread  fame  as  Byron. 

Suddenly  and  unexpectedly  this  adulation  turned  to 
hatred.  In  1815  Byron  married  Miss  Milbanke,  an  heiress, 
and  she  left  him  a  year  later.  No  reason  for  the  separa- 
tion was  given,  but  the  public  fastened  all  the  blame  upon 
Byron.  The  feeling  against  him  grew  so  strong  that  he 
was  warned  by  his  friends  to  prepare  for  open  violence, 
and  finally,  in  1816,  he  left  England  forever. 

His  remaining  eight  years  were  spent  mostly  in  Italy. 
Here,  his  great  beauty,  his  exile,  his  poetry,  and  his 
passionate  love  of  liberty  made  him  a  prominent  figure 
throughout  Europe.  Notwithstanding  this  fame,  life  was 
a  disappointment  to  Byron.  Baffled  but  defiant,  he  threw 
himself  for  a  time  into  a  vortex  of  dissolute,  licentious  liv- 
ing, and  enjoyed  the  shock  it  gave  to  his  countrymen. 

The  closing  year  of  his  life  shone  the  brightest  of  all. 
His  main  activities  had  hitherto  been  directed  to  the  selfish 
pursuit  of  his  own  pleasure,  and  he  had  failed  to  obtain 


354 


THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


happiness.  The  Greeks  were  battling  with  Turkey  for 
their  independence,  and  in  1823  Byron  went  to  Greece  to 
aid  them.  He  poured  his  whole  energies  into  this  struggle 
for  freedom,  and  he  displayed  "a  wonderful  aptitude  for 
managing  the  complicated  intrigues  and  plans  and  selfish- 


NEWSTEAD    ABBEY,    BYRON'S    HOME 

nesses  which  lay  in  the  way."  His  efforts  cost  him  his 
life.  He  contracted  fever,  and,  after  restlessly  battling 
with  the  disease,  he  said  quietly,  one  April  morning  in 
1824:  "Now  I  shall  go  to  sleep."  The  proud,  imperious 
spirit  awoke  no  more  to  dash  itself  against  the  cage  of  life. 
He  was  buried  in  the  family  vault  at  Hucknall,  Notting- 
hamshire, not  far  from  Newstead  Abbey. 


LORD   BYRON  355 

Early  Works.  —  The  poems  which  Byron  wrote  during 
his  brilliant  sojourn  in  London,  amid  the  whirl  of  social 
gayeties,  are  The  Giaour,  The  Bride  of  Abydos,  The 
Corsair,  Parisina,  Lara,  and  The  Siege  of  Corinth.  These 
narrative  poems  are  romantic  tales  of  oriental  passion  and 
coloring  which  show  the  influence  of  Scott.  They  are 
told  with  a  dash  and  a  fine-sounding  rhetoric  well  fitted  to 
attract  immediate  attention  ;  but  they  lack  the  qualities  of 
sincere  feeling,  lofty  thought,  and  subtle  beauty,  which 
give  lasting  fame. 

His  next  publication,  The  Prisoner  of  Chillon  (1816),  is 
a  much  worthier  poem.  The  pathetic  story  is  feelingly 
told  in  language  which  often  displays  remarkable  energy 
and  mastery  of  expression  and  versification.  His  picture 
of  the  oppressive  vacancy  which  the  Prisoner  felt  is  a  well- 
executed  piece  of  very  difficult  word  painting  :  — 

"  There  were  no  stars  —  no  earth  —  no  time  — 
No  check  —  no  change  —  no  good  —  no  crime  — 
But  silence,  and  a  stirless  breath 
Which  neither  was  of  life  or  death  ; 
A  sea  of  stagnant  idleness, 
Blind,  boundless,  mute,  and  motionless!" 

Dramas.  —  Byron  wrote  a  number  of  dramas,  the  best  of 
which  are  Manfred  (1817)  and  Cain  (1821).  His  spirit 
of  defiance  and  his  insatiable  thirst  for  power  are  the  sub- 
jects of  these  dramas.  Manfred  is  a  man  of  guilt  who  is 
at  war  with  humanity,  and  who  seeks  refuge  on  the  moun- 
tain tops  and  by  the  wild  cataract.  He  is  fearless  and 
untamed  in  all  his  misery,  and  even  in  the  hour  of  death 
does  not  quail  before  the  spirits  of  darkness,  but  defies 

them  with  the  cry  :  — 

"  Back  to  thy  hell ! 

Thou  hast  no  power  upon  me,  that  I  feel ! 
Thou  never  shalt  possess  me,  that  I  know : 


356  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

What  I  have  done  is  done ;  I  bear  within 

A  torture  which  could  nothing  gain  from  thine : 

Back,  ye  baffled  fiends  ! 
The  hand  of  death  is  on  me  —  but  not  yours ! " 

Cain,  while  suffering  remorse  for  the  slaying  of  Abel,  is 
borne  by  Lucifer  through  the  boundless  fields  of  the  uni- 
verse. Cain  yet  dares  to  question  the  wisdom  of  the 
Almighty  in  bringing  evil,  sin,  and  remorse  into  the  world. 
A  critic  has  remarked  that  "  Milton  wrote  his  great  poem 
to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man ;  Byron's  object  seems 
to  be  to  justify  the  ways  of  man  to  God." 

The  very  soul  of  stormy  revolt  breathes  through  both 
Manfred  and  Cain,  but  Cain  has  more  interest  as  a  pure 
drama.  It  contains  some  sweet  passages  and  presents 
one  lovely  woman,  —  Adah.  But  Byron  could  not  interpret 
a  character  wholly  at  variance  with  his  own.  He  pos- 
sessed but  little  constructive  skill,  and  he  never  overcame 
the  difficulties  of  blank  verse.  A  drama  that  does  not 
show  wide  sympathy  with  varied  types  of  humanity,  and 
the  constructive  capacity  to  present  the  complexities  of 
life,  is  lacking  in  essential  elements  of  greatness. 

Childe  Harold,  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  and  Don  Juan.  — 
His  best  works  are  the  later  poems  which  require  only 
a  slight  framework  or  plot,  such  as  Childe  Harold's  Pil- 
grimage, The  Vision  of  Judgment,  and  Don  Juan. 

The  third  and  fourth  cantos  of  Childe  Harold,  published 
in  1816  and,  1818,  respectively,  are  far  superior  to  the  first 
two.  These  later  cantos  continue  the  travels  of  Harold, 
and  contain  some  of  Byron's  most  splendid  descriptions 
of  nature,  cities,  and  works  of  art.  Rome,  Venice,  the 
Rhine,  the  Alps,  and  the  sea  inspired  the  finest  lines.  He 
wrote  of  Venice  as  she 


LORD   BYRON  357 

1 .      .  sate  in  state,  throned  on  her  hundred  isles  ! 
She  looks  a  sea  Cybele,  fresh  from  ocean, 
Rising  with  her  tiara  of  proud  towers 
At  airy  distance." 


"  The  Niobe  of  nations!  there  she  stands, 
Childless  and  crownless,  in  her  voiceless  woe ; 
An  empty  urn  within  her  withered  hands, 
Whose  holy  dust  was  scattered  long  ago." 

The  following  description  of  a  wild  stormy  night  in  the 
mountains  is  very  characteristic  of  his  nature  poetry  and 
of  his  own  individuality  :  — 

"  And  this  is  in  the  night :  —  Most  glorious  night ! 
Thou  wert  not  sent  for  slumber  !  let  me  be 
A  sharer  in  thy  fierce  and  far  delight  — 
A  portion  of  the  tempest  and  of  thee  ! 
How  the  lit  lake  shines,  a  phosphoric  sea, 
And  the  big  rain  comes  dancing  to  the  earth ! 
And  now  again  'tis  black,  —  and  now,  the  glee 
Of  the  loud  hills  shakes  with  its  mountain-mirth 
As  if  they  did  rejoice  o'er  a  young  earthquake's  birth." 

When  George  III.  died,  Southey  wrote  a  poem  filled 
with  absurd  flattery  of  that  monarch.  Byron  had  such 
intense  hatred  for  the  hypocrisy  of  society  that  he  wrote 
his  Vision  of  Judgment  (1822),  to  parody  Southey's  poem 
and  to  make  the  author  the  object  of  satire.  Pungent  wit, 
vituperation,  and  irony  were  here  handled  by  Byron  in  a 
brilliant  manner,  which  had  not  been  equaled  since  the 
days  of  Dryden  and  Pope.  The  parodies  of  most  poems 
are  quickly  forgotten,  but  we  have  here  the  strange  case 
of  Byron's  parody  keeping  alive  Southey's  original. 

Don  Juan  (1819-1824),  a  long  poem  in  sixteen  cantos,  is 
Byron's  greatest  work.  It  is  partly  autobiographic.  The 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  23 


358  THE  AGE   OF   ROMANTICISM,   1780-1837 

sinister,  gloomy  Don  Juan  is  an  ideal  picture  of  the  author, 
who  was  sore  and  bitter  over  his  thwarted  hopes  of  liberty 
and  happiness.  Therefore,  instead  of  strengthening  hu- 
manity with  hope  for  the  future,  this  poem  tears  hope 
fjom  the  horizon,  and  suggests  the  possible  anarchy  and 
destruction  toward  which  the  world's  hypocrisy,  cant, 
tyranny,  and  universal  stupidity  are  tending. 

The  poem  is  unfinished.  Byron  followed  Don  Juan 
through  all  the  phases  of  life  known  to  himself.  The 
hero  has  exciting  adventures  and  passionate  loves,  he  is 
favored  at  courts,  he  is  driven  to  the  lowest  depths  of 
society,  he  experiences  a  godlike  happiness  and  demonia- 
cal despair. 

Don  Juan  is  a  scathing  satire  upon  society.  All  its 
fondest  idols,  love,  faith,  and  hope,  are  dragged  in  the 
mire.  There  is  something  almost  grand  in  the  way  that 
this  titanic  scoffer  draws  pictures  of  love  only  to  mock  at 
them,  sings  patriotic  songs  only  to  add  :  — 

"  Thus  sung,  or  would,  or  could,  or  should  have  sung 
The  modern  Greek  in  tolerable  verse," 

and  mentions  Homer,  Milton,  and  Shakespeare  only  to 
show  how  accidental  and  worthless  fame  is. 

Amid  the  splendid  confusion  of  pathos,  irony,  passion, 
mockery,  keen  wit,  and  brilliant  epigram,  which  display 
Byron's  versatile  and  spontaneous  genius  at  its  height, 
there  are  some  beautiful  and  powerful  passages.  There 
is  an  ideal  picture  of  the  love  of  Don  Juan  and  Haidee  :  — 

"  Each  was  the  other's  mirror,  and  but  read 
Joy  sparkling  in  their  dark  eyes  like  a  gem." 

"...  they  could  not  be 
Meant  to  grow  old,  but  die  in  happy  spring, 
Before  one  charm  or  hope  had  taken  wing." 


LORD   BYRON  359 

As  she  lightly  slept,  — 

"...  her  face  so  fair 

Stirr'd  with  her  dream,  as  rose-leaves  with  the  air ; 
Or  as  the  stirring  of  a  deep  clear  stream 
Within  an  Alpine  hollow,  when  the  wind 
Walks  o'er  it." 

General  Characteristics.  —  The  poetry  of  Wordsworth 
and  Coleridge  shows  the  revolutionary  reaction  against 
classicism  in  literature  and  tyranny  in  government,  but 
their  verse  raises  no  cry  of  revolt  against  the  proprieties 
and  moral  restrictions  of  the  time.  Byron  was  so  satu- 
rated with  the  revolutionary  spirit  that  he  rebelled  against 
these  also,  and  for  this  reason  England  would  not  allow 
him  to  be  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Byron  frequently  wrote  in  the  white  heat  of  passionate 
revolt,  and  his  verse  shows  the  effects  of  lack  of  restraint. 
Unfortunately  he  did  not  afterwards  take  the  trouble  to 
improve  his  subject  matter,  or  the  mold  in  which  it  was 
cast.  Swinburne  says :  "  His  verse  stumbles  and  jingles, 
stammers  and  halts,  where  is  most  need  for  a  swift  and 
even  pace  of  musical  sound." 

The  great  power  of  Byron's  poetry  consists  in  its  wealth 
of  expression,  its  vigor,  its  rush  and  volume  of  sound,  its 
variety,  and  its  passion.  Lines  like  the  following  show 
the  vigorous  flow  of  the  verse,  the  love  for  lonely  scenery, 
and  a  wealth  of  figurative  expression  :  — 

"  Mont  Blanc  is  the  monarch  of  mountains, 
They  crowned  him  long  ago 
On  a  throne  of  rocks,  in  a  robe  of  clouds, 
With  a  diadem  of  snow."  x 

Scattered   through   his   works   we   find   rare   gems,    such 

as  the  following  :  — 

1  Manfred,  Act  I, 


360  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

"...  when 

Music  arose  with  its  voluptuous  swell, 
Soft  eyes  looked  love  to  eyes  which  spake  again, 
And  all  went  merry  as  a  marriage  bell." 1 

We  may  also  frequently  note  the  working  of  an  acute 
intellect,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  lines  in  which  he  calls  his 
own  gloomy  type  of  mind 

"...  the  telescope  of  truth, 
Which  strips  the  distance  of  its  phantasies, 
And  brings  life  near  in  utter  nakedness, 
Making  the  cold  reality  too  real! "  2 

The  answers  to  two  questions  which  are  frequently 
asked,  will  throw  more  light  on  Byron's  characteristics :  — 

I.  Why  has  his  poetic  fame  decreased  so  much  in  Eng- 
land?    In  the   eyes   of    his    contemporaries    he    seemed 
worthy  of   a  place  beside  Goethe.     The  reason  for  such 
an  estimate  is  to  be  sought  in  the  fact  that  Byron  reflected 
so   powerfully  the  mood  of   that  special  time.     That   re- 
actionary period  in  history  has  passed  and  with  it  much 
of    Byron's  influence  and  fame.     He  was,  unlike  Shake- 
speare,   specially   fitted    to    minister    to    a    certain    age. 
Again,    much   of    Byron's   verse   is   rhetorical,   and   that 
kind  of  poetry  does  not  wear  well.     On  the  other  hand, 
we   might   reread    Hamlet,  Lycidas,  and   the  Intimations 
of  Immortality  every   month  for  a  lifetime,  and  discover 
some  hidden  beauty  and  deep  truth  at  every  reading. 

II.  Why  does  the  continent  of  Europe  still  class  Byron 
among   the   very   greatest   English    poets,    next   even   to 
Shakespeare  ?      There  is  more  liberty  in   England   than 
on  the  continent.     To  the  Europeans,  Byron's  poetry  still 
voices  the  desire  for  freedom  from  tyranny  and  conven- 

1  Childe  Harold,  Canto  III.  2  The  Dream. 


PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY  361 

tionality.  Swinburne  gives  as  another  reason  the  fact  that 
Byron  actually  gains  by  translation  into  a  foreign  tongue. 
His  faulty  meters  and  careless  expressions  are  improved, 
and  his  vigorous  way  of  stating  things  and  his  rolling 
rhetoric  are  easily  comprehended.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
delicate  shades  of  thought  in  Hamlet  cannot  be  translated 
into  French  without  a  distinct  loss. 


PERCY  BYSSHE   SHELLEY,   1792-1822 

Life.  —  Another  fiery  spirit  of  the  Revolution  was 
Shelley,  born  in  1792,  of  rich  parentage,  at  Field  Place, 
near  Horsham,  Sussex.  He  was  one  of  the  most  ardent, 
independent,  and  reckless  English  poets  inspired  by  the 
French  Revolution.  He  was  a  man  who  could  face 
infamy  and  defy  the  conventionalities  of  the  world,  and, 
at  the  same  moment,  extend  a  helpful  hand  of  sympathy 
to  a  friend  or  sit  for  sixty  hours  beside  the  sick  bed  of 
his  dying  child.  Tender,  pitying,  fearless,  full  of  a  desire 
to  reform  the  world,  and  of  hatred  for  any  form  of  tyranny, 
Shelley  failed  to  adjust  himself  to  the  customs  and  laws 
of  his  actual  surroundings.  He  was  calumniated  and  de- 
spised by  the  public  at  large,  and  almost  idolized  by  his 
intimate  friends. 

At  Eton  he  denounced  the  tyranny  of  the  larger  boys. 
At  Oxford  he  decried  the  tyranny  of  the  church  over  free- 
dom of  thought,  and  he  was  promptly  expelled  for  his 
article  on  The  Necessity  of  AtJieism.  Immediately  after 
this,  he  married  a  schoolgirl  of  inferior  birth,  to  relieve 
her  from  parental  tyranny.  These  acts  alienated  his  fam- 
ily and  forced  him  to  forfeit  his  right  to  Field  Place. 

His  repeatedly  avowed  ideas  upon  religion,  government, 
and  marriage  brought  him  into  conflict  with  his  country's 


362  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


laws.     When   he  finally  left  England  in   1818,  never  to 
return,  he  was,  like  Byron,  practically  an  exile. 

The  remaining  four  years  of  Shelley's  life  were  passed 
in  Italy,  and  they  were  comparatively  peaceful.  With 
length  of  days,  he  might  have  learned  moderation  and 
have  gained  the  ear  of  the  English  people,  but  he  died 
in  his  thirtieth  year,  when  he  was  still  in  the  fervor  of 
youthful  extravagance.  He  was  drowned  in  the  Bay  of 


PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY  363 

Spezia  in  1822  and  was  buried  in  Rome,  near  the  spot 
where  Keats  lay  (p.  369). 

Works.  —  Alastor,  or  the  Spirit  of  Solitude  (1816),  is  a 
magnificent  expression  of  Shelley's  own  restless,  tameless 
spirit,  wandering  among  the  grand  solitudes  of  nature  in 
search  of  the  ineffably  lovely  dream  maiden,  who  was  his 
ideal  of  beauty.  He  travels  through  primeval  forests, 
stands  upon  dizzy  abysses,  plies  through  roaring  whirl- 
pools, all  of  which  are  symbolic  of  the  soul's  wayfaring, 
until  at  last,  — 

"  When  on  the  threshold  of  a  green  recess," 

his  dying  glance  rests  upon  the  setting  moon  and  the  suf- 
ferer finds  eternal  peace.  The  general  tone  of  this  poem 
is  painfully  despairing,  but  this  is  relieved  by  the  grandeur 
of  the  natural  scenes  and  by  many  imaginative  flights. 

The  year  1819  saw  the  publication  of  a  work  unique 
among  Shelley's  productions,  The  Cenci.  This  is  a 
drama  based  upon  the  baleful  story  of  Beatrice  Cenci. 
The  poem  deals  with  human  beings,  human  passions,  real 
acts,  and  the  natural  world,  whereas  Shelley  usually  pre- 
ferred to  treat  of  metaphysical  theories,  personified  ab- 
stractions, and  worlds  of  fancy.  This  strong  drama  was 
the  most  popular  of  his  works  during  his  lifetime. 

He  returned  to  the  ideal  sphere  again  in  his  greatest 
poem,  the  lyrical  drama  Prometheus  Unbound  (1820). 
This  poem  is  the  apotheosis  of  the  Revolution.  Prome- 
theus, the  friend  of  mankind,  lies  tortured  and  chained 
to  the  mountain  side.  As  the  hour  of  redemption  ap- 
proaches, his  beloved  Asia,  the  symbol  of  nature,  arouses 
the  soul  of  Revolution,  represented  by  Demogorgon.  He 
rises,  hurls  down  the  enemies  of  progress  and  freedom, 
releases  Prometheus,  and  spreads  liberty  and  happiness 


364  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

through  all  the  world.  Then  the  Moon,  the  Earth,  and 
the  Voices  of  the  Air  break  forth  into  a  magnificent  chant 
of  praise.  The  most  delicate  fancies,  the  most  gorgeous 
imagery,  and  the  most  fiery,  exultant  emotions  are  com- 
bined in  this  poem  with  something  of  the  stateliness  of  its 
Greek  prototype.  The  swelling  cadences  of  the  blank 
verse  and  the  tripping  rhythm  of  the  lyrics  are  the  prod- 
uct of  a  nature  rich  in  rare  and  wonderful  melodies. 

The  Witch  of  Atlas  (1820),  Epipsychidion  (1821),  Ado- 
nais  (1821),  and  the  exquisite  lyrics,  The  Cloud,  To  a  Sky- 
lark, and  Ode  to  the  West  Wind  are  the  most  beautiful 
of  the  remaining  works.  The  first  two  mentioned  are  the 
most  elusive  of  Shelley's  poems.  With  scarcely  an  echo 
in  his  soul  of  the  shadows  and  discords  of  earth,  the  poet 
paints,  in  these  works,  lands 

"...  'twixt  Heaven,  Air,  Earth,  and  Sea, 
Cradled,  and  hung  in  clear  tranquillity ;  " 

where  all  is 

"  Beautiful  as  a  wreck  of  Paradise."  * 

Adonais  is  a  lament  for  the  early  death  of  Keats,  and  it 
stands  second  in  the  language  among  elegiac  poems,  Lyci- 
das,  of  course,  coming  first.  Shelley  makes  all  nature 
mourn  for  the  poet  who  had  written  of  her  with  such 

adoration :  — 

"  Morning  sought 

Her  eastern  watch  tower,  and  her  hair  unbound, 
Wet  with  the  tears  which  should  adorn  the  ground, 
Dimmed  the  aerial  eyes  that  kindle  day ; 
Afar  the  melancholy  thunder  moaned, 
Pale  Ocean  in  unquiet  slumber  lay, 
And  the  wild  winds  flew  round,  sobbing  in  their  dismay." 

1  Epipsychidion. 


PERCY   BYSSHE   SHELLEY  365 

There  is  an  intensely  thrilling  beauty  about  the  poem.  It 
is  a  sad,  impassioned,  spontaneous  burst  of  song  in  which 
one  poet  crowns  another  with  unfading  laurel.  Nothing 
that  Shelley  ever  wrote  surpasses  this  poem  in  roundness, 
completeness,  and  perfection  of  artistic  finish. 

A  Great  Lyric  Poet.  —  Shelley  is  one  of  the  supreme 
lyrical  geniuses  in  the  language.  In  his  lyrics  he  sings 
with  airy  ease  in  strains  of  overflowing  ecstasy.  They 
seem  to  float  and  soar  as  naturally  as  the  JEolian  harp 
gives  forth  sound.  They  have  an  entrancing  lightness 
and  grace,  and  their  melody  is  glorious.  This  stanza  from 
the  poem  To  Night  shows  Shelley's  fine  lyrical  quali- 
ties :  — 

u  Swiftly  walk  over  the  western  wave, 

Spirit  of  Night! 
Out  of  the  misty  eastern  cave, 

Where,  all  the  long  and  lone  daylight, 
Thou  wovest  dreams  of  joy  and  fear, 
Which  make  thee  terrible  and  dear,  — 
Swift  be  thy  flight!" 

This  same  fragile,  spiritlike  beauty  is  shown  again  in 
Prometheus  Unbound.  One  of  the  most  exquisite,  impas- 
sioned passages  is  the  following,  where  Asia  approaches 

her  lover  in 

"  An  ivory  shell,  inlaid  with  crimson  fire, 
Which  comes  and  goes  within  its  sculptured  rim 
Of  delicate  strange  tracery," 

and  where  Asia's  wondrous  beauty  dazzles  the  eye  of  her 

sister  :  — 

"Child  of  Light!  thy  limbs  are  burning 

Through  the  vest  that  seems  to  hide  them, 
As  the  radiant  lines  of  morning 

Through  the  clouds,  ere  they  divide  them ; 
And  this  atmosphere  divinest 
Shrouds  thee  wheresoe'er  thou  shinest." 


366  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

The  Cloud,  To  a  Skylark,  and  the  Ode  to  the  West  Wind 
are  lyrics  which  partake  of  this  same  charming  witchery. 
The  first  stanza  of  The  Cloud  is  a  fine  example  :  — 

"  I  bring  fresh  showers  for  the  thirsting  flowers, 

From  the  seas  and  streams ; 
I  bear  light  shade  for  the  leaves  when  laid 

In  their  noonday  dreams. 
From  my  wings  are  shaken  the  dews  that  waken 

The  sweet  buds  every  one, 
When  rocked  to  rest  on  their  mother's  breast, 

As  she  dances  about  the  sun. 
I  wield  the  flail  of  the  lashing  hail, 

And  whiten  the  green  plains  under;        . 
And  then  again  I  dissolve  it  in  rain, 

And  laugh  as  I  pass  in  thunder." 

The  reader  feels  like  saying  of  Shelley  what  he  says  of 

the  skylark:  — 

"  Higher  still  and  higher 

From  the  earth  thou  springest, 
Like  a  cloud  of  fire  ; 

The  blue  deep  thou  wingest, 
And  singing  still  dost  soar,  and  soaring  ever  singest." 

Treatment  of  Nature.  —  In  many  of  his  lyrics  Shelley 
seems  to  have  forgotten  humanity  and  to  have  entered 
with  wonderful  intuition  into  the  heart  of  nature.  He 
makes  the  cloud,  the  bird,  and  the  wind  sing,  not  as  the 
ordinary  man  would,  simply  as  a  reflection  of  his  own  mood, 
but  as  these  embodiments  of  nature  might  themselves  be 
supposed  to  sing.  In  the  Ode  to  the  West  Wind,  one  of  the 
most  exquisite  things  Shelley  wrote,  he  cries  out :  — 

"  Make  me  thy  lyre,  even  as  the  forest  is : 

What  if  my  leaves  are  falling  like  its  own? 

The  tumult  of  thy  mighty  harmonies 

Will  take  from  both  a  deep  autumnal  tone 

Sweet  though  in  sadness." 


PERCY   BYSSHE   SHELLEY  367 

We  can  fancy  that  the  spirit  forms  of  nature  which  appear 
in  cloud  and  night,  in  mist  and  western  wind,  are  content 
to  have  found  in  Shelley  a  lyre  that  responded  in  such 
entrancing  notes  to  their  touch. 

General  Characteristics.  —  Shelley  is  the  purest,  the  most 
hopeful,  and  the  noblest  voice  of  the  Revolution.  Words- 
worth and  Coleridge  lost  their  faith  and  became  Tories, 
and  Byron  was  a  selfish,  lawless  creature,  but  Shelley  had 
the  martyr  spirit  of  sacrifice,  and  he  trusted  to  the  end 
in  the  wild  hopes  of  the  revolutionary  enthusiasts.  His 
Queen  Mab,  Revolt  of  Islam,  Ode  to  Liberty,  Ode  to  Naples, 
and,  above  all,  his  Prometheus  Unbound,  are  some  of  the 
works  inspired  by  a  trust  in  the  ideal  Democracy  which 
was  to  be  based  on  universal  love  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  This  faith  gives  a  bounding  elasticity  and  buoyancy 
to  Shelley's  thought,  but  also  tinges  it  with  that  disgust 
for  the  old,  that  defiance  of  restraint,  and  that  boyish  dis- 
regard for  experience  which  mark  a  time  of  revolt. 

The  other  subject  which  Shelley  treats  most  frequently 
in  his  verse  is  ideal  beauty.  He  yearned  all  his  life  for 
some  form  beautiful  enough  to  satisfy  the  aspirations  of 
his  soul.  Alastor,  Epipsychidion,  The  Witch  of  Atlas,  and 
Prometheus  Unbound,  all  breathe  this  insatiate  craving  for 
that  "  Spirit  of  Beauty,"  that  "  awful  Loveliness." 

Some  of  his  efforts  to  describe  in  verse  this  democracy 
and  this  ideal  beauty  are  impalpable,  obscure,  and  difficult 
to  follow.  Symonds  says  that  Shelley  "  flew  at  the  grand, 
the  spacious,  the  sublime  ;  and  did  not  always  succeed  in 
realizing  for  his  readers  what  he  had  imagined."  It  is 
difficult  to  clothe  such  shadowy  abstractions  in  clear, 
simple  form.  Sometimes  his  thoughts  seem  to  have 
emerged  but  partly  from  the  cloud  lands  which  gave 
them  birth. 


368  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

Like  Byron,  Shelley  is  sometimes  careless,  and  his 
poetry  often  shows  the  "negligence  of  nature."  Neither 
poet  was  in  the  habit  of  subjecting  his  work  to  that  care- 
ful revision  which  leaves  every  word  in  its  exact  place. 

We  shall,  however,  search  in  vain  for  these  faults  in 
some  of  Shelley's  lyrics.  His  greatest  title  to  fame  rests 
on  his  rare  lyric  gift.  Of  all  the  lyric  poets  of  England, 
he  is  the  greatest  master  of  an  ethereal,  evanescent,  and 
phantomlike  beauty.  Many  of  his  lyrics  are  wonderfully 
successful  in  portraying  the  elusive  spirit  of  nature,  whether 
in  the  changing  lights  of  the  dawn,  the  transient  glory  of 
the  rainbow,  or  the  breath  of  autumn,  which  turns  the 

leaves 

"  Yellow,  and  black,  and  pale,  and  hectic  red, 
Pestilence-stricken  multitudes." l 


JOHN    KEATS,  1795-1821 

Life. — John  Keats  was  born  at  Moorfields,  London,  in 
1795.  He  attended  school  at  Enfield,  and  was  apprenticed 
at  fifteen  to  a  surgeon.  One  day,  when  Keats  should  have 
been  listening  to  a  surgical  lecture,  "  there  came,"  he  says, 
"  a  sunbeam  into  the  room  and  with  it  a  whole  troop  of 
creatures  floating  in  the  ray ;  and  I  was  off  with  them  to 
Oberon  and  fairy  land." 

While  he  made  a  moderately  good  surgeon,  he  found 
that  his  heart  was  constantly  with  "  Oberon  and  the  fairy 
land"  of  poesy,  so  at  nineteen  he  gave  up  his  profession 
and  began  to  study  hard,  preparatory  to  a  literary  career. 
Greek  mythology  and  art  were  his  favorite  studies,  and  the 
ones  from  which  his  poetry  drew  most  freely.  His  first 
volume  was  published  in  1817,  and  his  last  in  1820.  He 

1  Ode  to  the  West  Wind, 


JOHN   KEATS 


369 


died  of  consumption  in  1821,  when  he  was  twenty-five 
years  old.  He  breathed  his  last  in  Rome,  whither  he  had 
gone  to  recuperate,  and  he  lies  buried  in  the  Protestant 
cemetery  there. 

Works.  —  Keats's  third  volume  of  poetry,  entitled  Lamia, 
Isabella,  The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  Hyperion,  and  Other  Poems 
(1820),  is  the  one  upon  which  his  fame  rests.  In  his  earlier 
works,  notably  in  Endymion  (1817),  the  immaturity  of  his 
mind  and  art  is  shown  by  a  boyish  sentimentality,  a  con- 
fusion of  details,  and  an  overabundance  of  ornament. 


3/0  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

These  blemishes  are  not  present  in  his  third  volume,  which 
reveals  a  mastery  of  poetic  form,  and  establishes  his  right 
to  stand  in  the  front  rank  of  British  poets. 

Lamia  is  one  of  the  most  faultless  of  these  poems. 
Keats's  nature  was  in  sympathy  with  this  beautiful  en- 
chantress, Lamia,  who,  upon  turning  from  a  serpent  into 
a  radiant  woman,  filled  every  sense  with  joy  and  rapture ; 
and  he  condemned  the  philosopher  Apollonius  for  discov- 
ering her  sorceries  and  causing  her  to  vanish  from  sight. 

Keats  says :  — 

"...  Do  not  all  charms  fly 
At  the  mere  touch  of  cold  philosophy  ? 
There  was  an  awful  rainbow  once  in  heaven : 
We  know  her  woof,  her  texture  ;  she  is  given 
In  the  dull  catalogue  of  common  things. 
Philosophy  will  clip  an  Angel's  wings, 
Conquer  all  mysteries  by  rule  and  line, 
Empty  the  haunted  air,  and  gnomed  mine  — 
Unweave  a  rainbow,  as  it  erewhile  made 
The  tender-person'd  Lamia  melt  into  a  shade." 

Keats  revels  in  the  intoxicating  and  bewildering  charms 
which  he  gives  to  his  enchantress  and  to  her  magic  palace. 
His  language  describing  them  is  full  of  seductive  beauty. 

Isabella,  or  the  Pot  of  Basil,  is  a  romantic  tale  of  love, 
taken  from  a  story  in  Boccaccio.  The  narration  of  this  tale 
is  not  well  handled,  but  it  contains  incidents  which  are 
beautifully  told.  The  young,  impulsive  love  of  Isabella 
and  Lorenzo  makes  a  sweet  idyl,  and  the  pitiful  grief  of 
Isabella,  when  she  learns,  through  a  vision,  that  her  lover 
has  been  murdered,  is  painted  with  a  tender  pathos  no- 
where else  surpassed  in  Keats. 

The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes  is  an  exquisite  and  brilliant  gem, 
fashioned  out  of  the  slightest  of  themes.  The  subject  is 
merely  the  visions  of  love  which  St.  Agnes  gives  to  one 


JOHN   KEATS  3/1 

of  her  votaries,  and  the  manner  in  which  those  visions  are 
realized.  It  can  hardly  be  said  that  this  poem  tells  a  tale ; 
it  rather  paints  a  picture,  vivid  and  highly  colored.  It 
should  be  read  entire. 

The  beautiful  fragment  of  Hyperion  differs  widely  from 
The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes.  Hyperion  is  an  epic,  planned  on 
lines  of  severity  and  simplicity. 

"Deep  in  the  shady  sadness  of  a  vale 
Far  sunken  from  the  healthy  breath  of  morn, 
Far  from  the  fiery  noon,  and  eve's  one  star, 
Sat  gray-hair'd  Saturn,  quiet  as  a  stone, 
Still  as  the  silence  round  about  his  lair." 

These  opening  lines  of  Hyperion  show  with  what  a  stately 
march  the  verse  is  to  bear  along  this  story  of  Gods  and 
Titans.  There  are  repose,  dignity,  and  majesty  in  the  poem. 
The  characters  tower  above  human  proportions,  as  though 
cut  from  the  polished  marble  by  Michael  Angelo.  Byron 
says  of  Keats  :  "His  fragment  of  Hyperion  seems  actually 
inspired  by  the  Titans,  and  is  as  sublime  as  yEschylus." 

In  addition  to  these  works,  there  are  many  shorter  poems 
which  exhibit  the  powers  of  Keats  at  their  height.  Among 
these  poems  are  the  ballad  La  Belle  Dame  sans  Merci  and 
those  glorious  odes,  On  a  Grecian  Urn,  To  Autumn,  and  To 
a  Nightingale. 

General  Characteristics.  —  In  the  judgment  of  Keats, 
philosophy,  politics,  and  ethics  were  not  suitable  subjects 
for  verse.  While,  therefore,  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge 
were  reflecting  upon  the  moral  law  of  the  universe,  while 
Byron  was  voicing  the  political  ideals  of  Europe  in  his 
poetry  of  revolt,  and  Shelley  was  writing  of  an  enfran- 
chised humanity,  the  muse  of  Keats  was  luxuriating  in 
classic  myths  and  mediaeval  legends,  and  was  inspired  by 
an  insatiable  love  of  beauty. 


372  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

"  A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  forever," 

he  says  in  Endymion.     In  the  Ode  on  a  Grecian  Urn,  he 

writes :  — 

" '  Beauty  is  truth,  truth  beauty,'  —  that  is  all 
Ye  know  on  earth,  and  all  ye  need  to  know." 

His  poetry  has  rarely  been  equaled  in  descriptions  of  the 
beauties  perceptible  to  the  senses,  such  as  form,  color, 
perfume,  or  music.  It  was  his  mission  to  interpret,  not 
the  highest  spiritual  life,  but  the  highest  type  of  sensuous 
beauty.  Such  beauty  has  its  moral  side,  and  its  power  to 
elevate  and  purify.  Since  all  the  higher  operations  of  the 
intellect  rest  upon  sensory  foundations,  it  is  well  that  the 
latter  should  be  built  of  the  most  beautiful  masonry  that 
nature  can  offer. 

The  sensitiveness  of  Keats  to  all  sense  impressions 
made  him  an  ardent  admirer  of  nature.  In  his  verse,  the 
color,  the  form,  and  the  sounds  of  nature  possess  Circean 
charms.  He  delights  to  paint  the  "  self  -folding  "  flower,— 

"The  coming  musk-rose  full  of  dewy  wine, 

The  murmurous  haunt  of  flies  on  summer  eves," 1 
and  — 

"  Sweet  birds  antheming  the  morn."2 

Because  most  of  the  poetry  of  Keats  is  full  of  a  youthful 
beauty,  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  he  has  no  deep  and 
serious  vein.  The  following  lines  have  the  old  Saxon 
seriousness,  although  it  is  softened  into  gentler  strains 
than  we  have  before  heard :  — 

"  Darkling  I  listen  ;  and,  for  many  a  time 
I  have  been  half  in  love  with  easeful  Death, 
Call'd  him  soft  names  in  many  a  muse'd  rime, 
To  take  into  the  air  my  quiet  breath."8 

1  Ode  to  a  Nightingale.  *  Fancy.  8  Ode  to  a  Nightingale. 


THOMAS  DE  QUINCEY  373 

These  lines  have  appealed  to  many  a  tired  soul  and  made 
it  "half  in  love  with  easeful  Death." 

Keats  is  akin  to  the  Elizabethans  in  his  fondness  for 
imagery.  His  poetry  abounds  in  figurative  language.  He 
is  also  a  master  of  melody.  His  verse  is  full  of  deep,  rich 
harmonies.  It  has,  in  places,  more  of  the  epic  quality  than 
any  contemporary  work  possesses. 

THOMAS   DE  QUINCEY,   1785-1859 

Life.  —  Thomas  De  Quincey  was  born  in  Manchester  in 
1785.  He  was  a  precocious  child,  and  he  became  quite  a 
student  at  the  age  of  eight.  When  he  was  only  eleven, 
his  Latin  verses  were  the  envy  of  the  older  boys  at  the 
Bath  school,  which  he  was  then  attending.  At  the  age  of 
fifteen,  he  was  so  thoroughly  versed  in  Greek  that  his 
professor  said  of  him  to  a  friend :  "  That  boy  could 
harangue  an  Athenian  mob  better  than  you  or  I  could 
address  an  English  one."  De  Quincey  was  sent  in  this 
year  to  the  Manchester  grammar  school,  but  his  mind 
was  in  advance  of  the  instruction  given  there,  and  he 
unceremoniously  left  the  school  on  his  seventeenth 
birthday. 

For  a  time  he  tramped  through  Wales,  living  on  an 
allowance  of  a  guinea  a  week.  Hungering  for  books,  he 
suddenly  posted  to  London.  He  feared  that  his  family 
would  force  him  to  return  to  school,  so  he  did  not  let  them 
know  his  whereabouts.  He  therefore  received  no  money 
from  them,  and  was  forced  to  wander  hungry,  sick,  and 
destitute,  through  the  streets  of  the  metropolis,  with  its 
outcasts  and  waifs.  He  describes  this  part  of  his  life  in  a 
very  entertaining  manner  in  his  Confessions  of  an  English 
Opium-Eater. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  24 


374  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 


When  his  family  found  him,  a  year  later,  they  prevailed 
on  him  to  go  to  Oxford  ;  and,  for  the  next  four  years,  he 
lived  the  life  of  a  recluse  at  college,  scarcely  raising  his 
head  from  his  books  to  talk  to  any  one. 

In  1808  he  took  the  cottage  at  Grasmere  which 
Wordsworth  had  quitted,  and  enjoyed  the  society  of  the 
three  Lake  poets  (p.  3  1  3).  Here  De  Quincey  married  and 
lived  his  happiest  years. 

The  latter  part  of  his  life  was  clouded  by  his  indulgence 
in  opium,  which  he  had  first  taken  while  at  college  to  re- 
lieve acute  neuralgia.  At  one  time  he  took  8000  drops  of 


THOMAS   DE  QUINCEY  375 

laudanum  a  day.  Owing  to  a  business  failure,  his  money 
was  lost,  and  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  throw  off  the 
influence  of  the  narcotic  sufficiently  to  earn  a  livelihood. 
In  1821  he  began  to  write.  From  that  time  until  his 
death,  in  1859,  his  life  was  devoted  mainly  to  literature. 

Works.  —  Nearly  all  of  De  Quincey's  writings  were  con- 
tributed to  magazines.  His  first  and  greatest  contribution 
was  The  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium- Eater,  published 
in  the  London  Magazine.  These  Confessions  are  most  re- 
markable for  the  brilliant  and  elaborate  style  in  which 
the  author's  early  life  and  his  opium  dreams  are  related. 
His  splendid,  yet  melancholy,  dreams  are  the  most  famous 
in  the  language. 

De  Quincey's  wide  reading,  especially  of  history,  sup- 
plied the  material  for  many  of  them.  In  these  dreams  he 
saw  the  court  ladies  of  "the  unhappy  times  of  Charles  I.," 
witnessed  Marius  pass  by  with  his  Roman  legions,  "  ran 
into  pagodas"  in  China,  where  he  "was  fixed,  for  cen- 
turies, at  the  summit,  or  in  secret  rooms,"  and  "was  buried 
for  a  thousand  years,  in  stone  coffins,  in  narrow  chambers 
at  the  heart  of  eternal  pyramids  "  in  Egypt. 

His  dreams  were  affected  also  by  the  throngs  of  people 
whom  he  had  watched  in  London.  He  was  haunted  by 
"  the  tyranny  of  the  human  face."  He  says  :  — 

"  Faces  imploring,  wrathful,  despairing,  surged  upwards  by  thou- 
sands, by  myriads,  by  generations,  by  centuries  :  my  agitation  was  infi- 
nite, my  mind  tossed,  and  surged  with  the  ocean." 

Sound  also  played  a  large  part  in  the  dreams.  Music, 
heart-breaking  lamentations,  and  pitiful  echoes  recurred  fre- 
quently in  the  most  magnificent  of  these  nightly  pageants. 
One  of  the  most  distressing  features  of  the  dreams  was 
their  vastness.  The  dreamer  lived  for  centuries  in  one 


3/6  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

night,  and  space  "  swelled,  and  was  amplified  to  an  extent 
of  unutterable  infinity." 

To  present  with  such  force  and  reality  these  grotesque 
and  weird  fancies,  these  vague  horrors,  and  these  deep 
oppressions  required  a  powerful  imaginative  grasp  of  the 
intangible,  and  a  masterly  command  of  language. 

In  no  other  work  does  De  Quincey  reach  the  eminence 
attained  in  the  Confessions,  although  his  scholarly  acquire- 
ments enabled  him  to  treat  philosophical,  critical,  and  his- 
torical subjects  with  wonderful  grace  and  ease.  His 
biographer,  Masson,  says  :  "  De  Quincey 's  sixteen  volumes 
of  magazine  articles  are  full  of  brain  from  beginning  to 
end."  The  wide  range  of  his  erudition  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  he  could  write  such  fine  literary  criticisms  as  On 
Wordsworth's  Poetry  and  On  the  Knocking  at  the  Gate  in 
Macbeth,  such  clear,  strong,  and  vivid  descriptions  of  his- 
torical events  and  characters  as  The  Ccesars,Joan  of  Arc, 
and  The  Revolt  of  the  Tartars,  and  such  acute  essays  on 
unfamiliar  topics  as  The  Toilette  of  a  Hebrew  Lady,  The 
Casuistry  of  Roman  Meals,  and  The  Spanish  Military 
Nun. 

He  had  a  contemplative,  analytic  mind  which  enjoyed 
knotty  metaphysical  problems  and  questions  far  removed 
from  daily  life,  such  as  the  first  principles  of  political 
economy,  and  of  German  philosophy.  While  he  was  a 
clear  thinker  in  such  fields,  he  added  little  that  was  new 
to  English  thought. 

The  works  which  rank  next  to  The  Confessions  of  an 
English  Opium-Eater  are  all  largely  autobiographical,  and 
reveal  charming  glimpses  of  this  dreamy,  learned  sage. 
These  works  are  Suspiria  de  Profundis  (Sighs  from  the 
Depths),  The  English  Mail  Coach,  and  Autobiographic 
Sketches.  None  of  them  contains  any  striking  or  unusual 


THOMAS   DE   QUINCEY  377 

experience  of  the  author.  Their  power  rests  upon  their 
marvelous  style.  Levana  and  Our  Ladies  of  Sorrow  in 
Suspiria  de  Profundis  and  the  Dream  Fugue  in  the  Mail 
Coach  are  among  the  most  musical,  the  most  poetic,  and 
the  most  imaginative  of  the  author's  productions. 

General  Characteristics.  —  One  of  the  most  prominent 
characteristics  of  De  Quincey's  style  is  precision.  There 
are  but  few  English  essayists  who  can  compare  with  him 
in  scrupulous  precision  of  expression.  He  qualifies  and 
elaborates  a  simple  statement  until  its  exact  meaning 
becomes  plainly  manifest.  His  vocabulary  is  extraordi- 
nary. In  any  of  the  multifarious  subjects  treated  by  him, 
the  right  word  seems  always  at  hand.  The  extreme  care 
which  he  takes  to  get  the  best  word  may  be  seen  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage  from  Levana  and  Our  Ladies  of  Sorrow  :  — 

"These  Sisters  —  by  what  name  shall  we  call  them?  If  I  say 
simply  '  The  Sorrows,'  there  will  be  a  chance  of  mistaking  the  term ;  it 
might  be  understood  of  individual  sorrow,  —  separate  cases  of  sorrow, 
whereas  I  want  a  term  expressing  the  mighty  abstractions  that  incar- 
nate themselves  in  all  individual  sufferings  of  man's  heart,  and  I  wish 
to  have  these  abstractions  presented  as  impersonations,  —  that  is,  as 
clothed  with  human  attributes  of  life,  and  with  functions  pointing  to 
flesh.  Let  us  call  them,  therefore,  Our  Ladies  of  Sorrow." 

Such  elaborate  explanation  of  expressions  is  met  with  fre- 
quently in  De  Quincey. 

Another  characteristic,  which  is  very  striking  in  all  his 
works,  is  stateliness.  His  long,  periodic  sentences  move 
with  a  quiet  dignity,  adapted  to  the  treatment  of  lofty 
themes.  In  contrasting  the  simplicity  of  Swift  with  the 
elegance  of  De  Quincey,  Leslie  Stephen  humorously 
remarks  that  if  Swift's  plain,  direct  subjects  had  been 
attempted  by  De  Quincey,  "  he  would  have  resembled  a 
king  in  his  coronation  robes,  compelled  to  lead  a  forlorn 


378  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

hope  up  the  scaling  ladders."  When,  however,  De 
Quincey  describes  a  magnificent  dream,  a  fine  landscape, 
or  an  incident  in  his  own  experience,  the  floating  "  corona- 
tion robes  "  of  his  style  have  the  proper  regal  sweep. 

A  further  striking  quality  of  De  Quincey's  style  is  har- 
mony. His  language  is  so  full  of  rich  harmonies  that  it 
challenges  comparison  with  poetry.  He  shared  the  enjoy- 
ment of  Keats  in  the  rhythm  and  sound  of  a  sentence, 
apart  from  its  meaning.  He  sometimes  gains  his  effects 
by  the  repetition  -of  words.  He  says  :  — 

"The  sound  was  reverberated  —  everlasting  farewells  !  and  again  and 
yet  again  reverberated  —  everlasting  farewells  I"1 

De  Quincey's  work  possesses  also  a  light,  ironic  humor, 
which  is  happiest  in  parody.  The  essay  upon  Murder 
Considered  as  One  of  the  Fine  Arts  is  the  best  example  of 
his  humor.  This  selection  is  one  of  the  most  whimsical :  — 

"  For,  if  once  a  man  indulges  himself  in  murder,  very  soon  he  comes 
to  think  little  of  robbing;  and  from  robbing  he  comes  next  to  drinking 
and  Sabbath  breaking,  and  from  that  to  incivility  and  procrastination. 
Once  begin  upon  this  downward  path,  you  never  know  where  you  are 
to  stop." 

De  Quincey's  gravest  fault  is  digression.  He  fre- 
quently leaves  his  main  theme  and  follows  some  line  of 
thought  that  has  been  suggested  to  his  well-stored  mind. 
These  digressions  are  often  quite  lengthy,  and  sometimes 
one  digression  leads  to  another,  until  several  subjects 
receive  treatment  in  one  paper.  He,  however,  always 
returns  to  the  subject  in  hand,  and  he  always  defines 
very  sharply  the  point  of  digression  and  of  return.  An- 
other of  his  faults  is  an  indulgence  in  involved  sentences, 
which  weaken  the  vigor  and  simplicity  of  the  style. 

1  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium- Eater. 


SUMMARY  379 

Despite  these  faults,  De  Quincey  is  a  great  master  of  lan- 
guage. He  deserves  study  for  the  three  most  striking  char- 
acteristics of  his  style, — precision,  stateliness,  and  harmony. 

SUMMARY 

The  tide  of  reaction,  which  had  for  some  time  been 
gathering  force,  swept  triumphantly  over  England  in  this 
age  of  Romanticism. 

Men  rebelled  against  the  aristocracy,  the  narrow  con- 
ventions of  society,  the  authority  of  the  church  and  of  the 
government,  against  the  supremacy  of  cold  classicism  in 
literature,  against  confining  intellectual  activity  to  tangible 
commonplace  things,  and  against  the  repression  of  imagi-. 
nation  and  of  the  soul's  aspirations.  The  two  principal 
forces  behind  these  changes  were  the  Romantic  Move- 
ment, which  culminated  in  changed  literary  ideals,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  French  Revolution,  which  emphasized  the 
close  kinship  of  all  ranks  of  humanity. 

The  age  was  preeminently  poetic.  The  Elizabethan 
period  alone  excels  it  in  the  glory  of  its  poetry.  The  sub- 
jects of  verse  in  the  age  of  Romanticism  were  external 
nature  and  an  ideal  humanity.  Cowper,  Burns,  Scott, 
Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Keats  con- 
stitute a  group  of  nature  poets  that  cannot  be  paralleled  in 
English  literature.  The  democratic  spirit  of  the  age  is 
shown  in  the  poetry  of  man.  Burns  sings  of  the  Scotch 
peasant,  Wordsworth  pictures  the  life  of  shepherds  and 
dalesmen,  Byron's  lines  ring  with  a  cry  of  liberty  for 
all,  and  Shelley  immortalizes  the  dreams  of  a  universal 
brotherhood  of  man. 

While  the  prose  does  not  take  such  high  rank  as  the 
poetry,  there  are  some  writers  who  will  not  soon  be  for- 
gotten. Scott  will  be  remembered  as  the  great  master  of 


380  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

the  historical  novel,  Jane  Austen  as  the  skillful  interpreter 
of  commonplace  character,  De  Quincey  for  the  brilliancy 
of  his  style  and  the  vigor  of  his  imagination  in  presenting 
his  opium  dreams,  and  Lamb  for  his  exquisite  humor.  In 
philosophical  prose,  Mill,  Bentham,  and  Malthus  made  im- 
portant contributions  to  moral,  social,  and  political  phi- 
losophy, while  Coleridge  opposed  their  utilitarian  and 
materialistic  tendencies,  and  codified  the  principles  of 
criticism  from  a  romantic  point  of  view. 


REQUIRED  READINGS  FOR  CHAPTER  IX 

HISTORICAL 

Gardiner,1  pp.  792-914;  Green,  pp.  786-836;  Underwood-Guest, 
pp.  536-556;  Guerber,  pp.  309-320;  Hassall's  Making  of  the  British 
Empire,  pp.  82-142;  Traill,  V.,  366-627,  VI.,  i-iio. 

LITERARY 

Cowper.  —  Read  the  opening  stanzas  of  Cowper's  Conversation  and 
note  the  strong  influence  of  Pope  in  the  cleverly  turned  but  artificial 
couplets.  Compare  this  poem  with  the  one  On  the  Receipt  of  my 
Mother's  Picture  or  with  The  Task,  Book  IV.,  lines  1-41  and  267-332, 
and  point  out  the  marked  differences  in  subject  matter  and  style.  Is 
there  a  forward  movement  in  literature  indicated  by  the  change  in 
Cowper's  manner?  John  Gilpin  should  be  read  for  its  fresh,  beguiling 
humor. 

Burns.  —  Read  The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night,  For  a"1  That  and  a1 
That,  To  a  Mouse,  Highland  Mary,  To  Mary  in  Heaven,  Farewell  to 
Nancy,  f  Love  My  Jean,  A  Red,  Red  Rose.  The  teacher  should  read 
to  the  class  parts  of  Tain  o'  Shanter. 

In  what  ways  do  the  first  three  poems  mentioned  above  show  Burns's 
sympathy  with  democracy?  Quote  some  of  Burns's  fine  descriptions 
of  nature  and  describe  the  manner  in  which  he  treats  nature.  How 
does  he  rank  as  a  writer  of  love  songs?  What  qualities  in  his  poems 

1  For  full  titles,  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 


READING   REFERENCES  381 

have  touched  so  many  hearts  ?    Compare  his  poetry  with  that  of  Dry- 
den,  Pope,  and  Shakespeare. 

Scott.  —  Read  The  Lady  of  the  Lake,  Canto  III.,  stanzas  iii.-xxv.,  or 
Marmion,  Canto  VI.,  stanzas  xiii.-xxvii.,  (American  Book  Co.'s 
Eclectic  English  Classics,  or  Cassell's  National  Library,  Nos.  14  and 
136).  Read  in  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  V.,  "The  Gypsy's 
Curse,"  pp.  14-17,  "The  Death  of  Madge  Wildfire,"  pp.  30-35,  and 
"  The  Grand  Master  of  the  Templars,"  pp.  37-42.  The  student  should 
put  on  his  list  for  reading  at  his  leisure  :  Guy  Mannering,  Old  Mortality, 
Ivanhoe,  Kenilworth,  and  The  Talisman. 

In  what  kind  of  poetry  does  Scott  excel?  Quote  some  of  his  spirited 
lines,  and  point  out  their  chief  excellences.  How  does  his  poetry  differ 
from  that  of  Burns?  In  the  history  of  fiction  does  Scott  rank  as  an 
imitator  or  a  creator?  As  a  writer  of  fiction  in  what  do  his  strength 
and  his  weakness  consist?  Has  he  those  qualities  that  will  cause  him 
to  be  popular  a  century  hence?  What  can  be  said  of  his  style? 

Jane  Austen.  —  In  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  V.,  read 
the  two  selections  from  Pride  and  Prejudice,  pp.  59-66. 

In  delineation  of  character,  how  does  Jane  Austen  differ  from  Scott? 

Wordsworth.  —  From  the  uneven  work  of  Wordsworth  such  poems 
as  the  following  may  be  selected :  Michael,  from  the  narrative  poems ; 
The  Solitary  Reaper,  Glen  Almain,  To  a  Highland  Girl,  Lines  Com- 
posed a  Few  Miles  above  Tintern  Abbey,  and  Daffodils,  from  the  lyrics  ; 
"  It  is  a  beauteous  evening,  calm  and  free,"  "Milton!  thou  should'st  be 
living  at  this  hour,"  and  "The  world  is  too  much  with  us,  late  and 
soon,"  from  the  sonnets ;  and  the  Ode  on  Intimations  of  Immortality, 
from  the  odes. 

In  which  of  these  poems  does  Wordsworth  show  his  belief  in  the 
consciousness  of  nature  ?  Are  these  poems  of  nature  more  remarkable 
for  their  power  of  description  or  for  their  spiritual,  imaginative  beauty? 
Are  the  characters  in  Michael  as  clearly  marked  as  those  in  The  Cotter's 
Saturday  Night  ?  Was  Matthew  Arnold  justified  in  saying  of  Words- 
worth :  "  It  might  seem  that  nature  not  only  gave  him  the  matter  for 
his  poem,  but  wrote  his  poem  for  him"?  Indicate  some  passages 
where  Wordsworth's  reflective  genius  is  best  displayed. 

Coleridge.  —  Read  The  Ancient  Mariner  and  Christabel  (Ward,  IV., 
128-154 ;  The  Ancient  Mariner  may  also  be  had  in  the  Eclectic  English 
Classics  Series). 

In  what  way  do  these  poems  display  the  influence  of  romanticism? 
Is  Wordsworth's  influence  noticeable  in  any  of  Coleridge's  poetry  of 


382  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

nature?  What  feeling,  almost  unknown  in  early  poetry,  is  common 
in  Coleridge's  The  Ancient  Mariner,  Wordsworth's  Hart-Leap  Well, 
Burns's  To  a  Mouse,  On  Seeing  a  Wounded  Hare  Limp  by  Me,  A  Win- 
ter Night,  and  Cowper's  On  a  Goldfinch  Starved  to  Death  in  his  Cage  ? 

Coleridge's  prose  criticisms  upon  Wordsworth  in  Biographia  Lite- 
raria  and  on  Shakespeare  in  the  first  and  second  volumes  of  Literary 
Remains  should  be  read  by  the  student.  The  cream  of  these  works 
will  be  found  in  Henry  A.  Beers's  carefully  edited  Selections  from  the 
Prose  Writings  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  146  pp.,  50  cents. 

Note  how  fully  Coleridge  unfolds  the  principles  of  romantic  criticism 
in  these  essays. 

Byron.  —  Read  The  Prisoner  of  Chilian  {Selections  from  Byron, 
Eclectic  English  Classics},  Childe  Harold,  Canto  III.,  stanzas  xxi.- 
xxv.  and  cxiii.,  Canto  IV.,  stanzas  Ixxviii.  and  Ixxix.,  "  Oh,  Snatch'd 
away  in  Beauty's  Bloom,"  "  There's  not  a  joy  the  world  can  give  like 
that  it  takes  away,"  and  from  Don  Juan,  Canto  III.,  the  song  inserted 
between  stanzas  Ixxxvi.  and  Ixxxvii.  All  these  poems  will  be  found  in 
the  two  volumes  of  Byron's  works  in  the  Canterbury  Poets'1  series. 

From  these  stanzas  of  Childe  Harold  select,  first,  the  passages  which 
best  illustrate  the  spirit  of  revolt,  and,  second,  the  passages  marked  by 
most  poetic  beauty.  Is  Byron  a  poet  of  despair?  What  natural  phe- 
nomena appeal  most  to  Byron? 

Shelley.  —  Read  Adonais,  The  Cloud,  To  a  Skylark,  Ode  to  the 
West  Wind,  The  Sensitive  Plant. 

Does  either  the  Adonais  of  Shelley  or  the  Lycidas  of  Milton  express 
a  deep,  personal  sorrow  ?  Under  what  different  aspects  do  these  two 
elegiac  poems  view  the  life  after  death?  Did  Shelley  see  the  spiritual 
side  of  nature  like  Wordsworth  ?  What  is  the  most  striking  quality  of 
Shelley's  poetic  gift? 

Keats.  —  Read  The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  La  Belle  Dame  sans  Merci, 
Ode  on  a  Grecian  Urn,  To  a  Nightingale. 

In  what  respects  is  Keats  a  great  poet  of  nature?  Does  he  teach 
any  ethical  lesson?  How  is  he  more  nearly  akin  to  the  Elizabethans 
than  any  of  his  contemporaries  ? 

De  Quincey.  —  Read  Levana  and  Our  Ladies  of  Sorrow,  which  will 
be  found  in  Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  264-270. 
The  first  few  chapters  of  The  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium-Eater 
(Morley's  Universal  Library,  No.  35,  40  cents)  are  so  entertaining 
that  they  will  well  repay  reading,  if  the  student  has  the  time. 

Do  his  writings  show  the  influence  of  a  romantic  and  poetic  age? 


READING   REFERENCES  383 

Compare  his  style  with  that  of  Addison,  Gibbon,  and  Burke.  In  what 
respects  does  De  Quincey  succeed,  and  in  what  does  he  fail,  as  a  model 
for  a  young  writer  ? 

Lamb.  —  From  the  Essays  of  Elia,  read  the  Dissertation  on  Roast  Pig. 
Selections  from  the  Essays  may  be  found  in  Craik,  V.,  pp.  116-126. 

In  what  does  Lamb's  chief  charm  consist  ?  Point  out  resemblances 
and  differences  between  his  Essays  and  Addison's. 


WORKS     FOR    CONSULTATION    AND    FURTHER     STUDY 

(OPTIONAL) 

Herford's  The  Age  of  Wordsworth,  315  pp.  (the  best  short  work). 

Oliphant's  Literary  History  of  England  in  the  End  of  the  Eighteenth 
and  Beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

Saintsbury's  History  of  Nineteenth  Century  Literature,  pp.  1-137. 

Shairp's  Poetic  Interpretation  of  Nature  and  Aspects  of  Poetry. 

Brooke's  Theology  in  the  English  Poets. 

Hancock's  French  Revolution  and  the  English  Poets. 

The  French  Revolution  and  Literature  and  The  Transcendental 
Movement  and  Literature,  in  Dowden's  Studies  in  Literature. 

Scudder's  Life  of  tJte  Spirit  in  the  Afodern  English  Poets. 

Arnold's  Essays  in  Criticism. 

Noel's  Essays  on  Poetry  and  Poets. 

Swinburne's  Essays  and  Studies  and  Miscellanies. 

Masson's  Wordsworth,  Shelley,  and  Keats. 

Bagehot's  Literary  Studies. 

Lowell's  Among  My  Books. 

Phillips's  Popular  Manual  of  English  Literature,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  87-402. 

Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  422-608  ;  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  1-488. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  1-273. 

Clark's  Study  of  English  Prose  Writers,  pp.  323-419. 

Wright's  Life  of  Cowper. 

Goldwin  Smith's  Life  of  Cowper. 

Cowper  and  Rousseau,  in  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library,  Vol.  II. 

Shairp's  Life  of  Burns. 

Blackie's  Life  of  Burns. 

Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns. 

Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott. 

Hutton's  Life  of  Scott. 


384  THE  AGE  OF  ROMANTICISM,  1780-1837 

Yonge's  Life  of  Scott. 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library,  Vol.  I. 

Jack's  Essays  on  the  Novel  as  Illustrated  by  Scott  and  Miss  Austen. 

Gold  win  Smith's  Life  of  Jane  Austen. 

Knight's  Life  of  William  Wordsworth,  3  vols. 

Myers's  Life  of  Wordsworth. 

Wordsworth :  the  Man  and  the  Poet,  in  Shairp's  Studies  in  Poetry 
and  Philosophy. 

Wordsworth's  Ethics,  in  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library,  Vol.  II. 

Knight's  Through  the  Wordsworth  Country,  illustrated. 

Reynold's  The  Treatment  of  Nature  in  English  Poetry  between  Pope 
and  Wordsworth. 

George's  Preface  to  The  Prelude  and  Preface  to  Selections  from 
Wordsworth. 

Pater's  Appreciations  (Wordsworth  and  Coleridge). 

Traill's  Life  of  Coleridge. 

Caine's  Life  of  Coleridge. 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  in  Shairp's  Studies  in  Poetry  and  Philosophy. 

Brandl's  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  and  the  English  Romantic  Move- 
ment. 

Coleridge :  Prose  Extracts,  edited  by  H .  A.  Beers. 

Nichol's  Life  of  Byron. 

Noel's  Life  of  Byron. 

Macaulay's  Essay  on  Byron. 

Mathilde  Blind's  Introduction  to  the  Poetical  Works  of  Lord  Byron 
in  Canterbury  Poets. 

Dowden's  Life  of  Shelley. 

Symonds's  Life  of  Shelley. 

Shairp's  Life  of  Shelley. 

Shelley 's  Philosophical  Views  of  Reform  and  Last  Words  on  Shelley, 
in  Dowden's  Transcripts  and  Studies. 

Brooke's  Preface  to  Poems  of  Shelley. 

Godwin  and  Shelley,  in  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library,  Vol.  III. 

Colvin's  Life  of  Keats. 

Rossetti's  Life  of  Keats. 

Masson's  Life  of  De  Quincey. 

Page's  Life  and  Writings  of  De  Quincey. 

Study  of  Thomas  De  Quincey,  in  Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose 
Literature,  pp.  31-75. 

De  Quincey,  in  Stephen's  Hours  in  a  Library,  Vol.  I. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   VICTORIAN   AGE,  1837-1901 

A  Literature  of  Variety.  —  Before  Queen  Victoria  as- 
cended the  throne  in  1837,  Coleridge,  Scott,  Shelley,  Byron, 
and  Keats  had  passed  away.  The  old  order  had  given 
place  to  a  new  one.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, the  spirit  of  revolt  against  classical  literary  forms 
and  tyrannical  methods  of  government  was  animating  the 
poets.  The  Victorian  age  has  been  inspired  by  no  over- 
mastering impulse,  without  which  no  age  can  reach  the 
greatest  heights,  although  it  may  do  much  excellent  and 
necessary  work  in  the  evolution  of  literature. 

While  no  one  type  of  literature  has  received  its  con- 
summate expression  in  this  period,  a  greater  variety  of 
efforts  has  attained  eminence  than  in  any  previous  time. 
In  poetry,  prose  fiction,  essays,  history,  philosophy,  and 
scientific  treatises,  the  Victorian  age  has  done  good  work. 
The  most  eminent  writers  of  the  period  are  Browning  and 
Tennyson  in  poetry ;  Thackeray,  Dickens,  and  George 
Eliot,  in  prose  fiction ;  Carlyle,  Macaulay,  Ruskin,  and 
Matthew  Arnold,  in  essay  writing;  Herbert  Spencer, 
Cardinal  Newman,  and  Sir  William  Hamilton  in  various 
types  of  philosophy ;  and  Darwin,  Tyndall,  and  Huxley 
in  science.  This  many-sided,  restless  modern  life  has 
found  literary  expression  as  varied  as  its  .aims  and  moods. 

Prose  takes  higher  comparative  rank  in  the  Victorian 
than  in  the  preceding  age.  In  special  fields,  the  prose 
of  Bunyan,  Swift,  and  Burke  has  not  been  surpassed, 

385 


386  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

but  the  Victorian  age  stands  first  in  the  extent,  variety, 
and  finished  style  of  its  prose.  The  novel  is  the  most 
widely  popular,  the  most  prolific,  and  the  most  charac- 
teristic type  of  nineteenth  century  prose.  The  changed 
character  of  the  reading  public  furnishes  one  reason  for 
the  unprecedented  growth  of  fiction.  The  spread  of 
education  among  all  classes  of  society,  through  public 
schools,  newspapers,  and  cheap  magazines,  gradually 
enabled  the  masses  to  become  the  readers  of  books  not 
too  abstruse  or  philosophical.  The  lives  of  the  majority 
of  people  are  spent  in  hard  toil  and  their  culture  is  lim- 
ited. If  such  are  to  find  much  amusement,  it  must  come 
from  reading  matter  within  their  comprehension.  The 
novel  has  also  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  present  life 
in  all  its  variety. 

If  those  epochs  represented  by  only  one  great  poet, 
like  Chaucer  or  Milton,  are  not  considered,  it  is  probable 
that  posterity  will  assign  third  place  to  the  Victorian  age 
for  its  poetry  and  rank  it  below  the  poetry  of  the  age 
of  Elizabeth  and  of  Romanticism.  The  Victorian  poets, 
unlike  the  Elizabethan,  could  not  sit  at  the  feet  of  all 
human  life,  listen  to  its  wonderful  tale,  and  repeat  it 
unmarred  by  special  theories  and  philosophies,  nor  could 
the  later  poets  "recapture  the  first  fine  careless  rapture" 
of  the  earlier  singers.  In  some  respects  the  Victorian 
poets  surpass  their  more  gifted  brothers.  The  exaggera- 
tion and  lack  of  self-control  in  the  Elizabethan  age  have 
been  largely  avoided.  Unlike  the  poets  of  the  first  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  Tennyson  combines  rare  artis- 
tic power  with  feeling  and  close  observation  of  life.  The 
Victorian  poets  are  less  buoyant  and  imaginative  than  the 
Romantic  school  which  immediately  preceded  them,  but 
in  regard  to  government,  social  reformation,  and  human 


A  SCIENTIFIC  AGE  387 

capability,   they   display   the   characteristics   of   a   saner, 
wiser,  and  more  moderate  age. 

The  Victorian  period  may  also  be  differentiated  from 
others  by  the  extent  of  the  influence  of  science  on  liter- 
ature. This  influence  has  been  so  powerful  that  it  de- 
mands special  consideration. 

A  Scientific  Age.  —  The  growth  of  science  has  been  one 
of  the  foremost  influences  to  shape  the  thought  of  the 
age.  Steam  has  been  put  to  a  thousand  uses.  Wonderful 
machines  have  been  invented  to  do  what  was  impossible 
for  human  hands.  The  year  of  Victoria's  accession  to 
the  throne  saw  the  operation  of  the  first  telegraph  line  in 
England.  Electricity  made  a  reality  of  Puck's  boast  to 
girdle  the  earth  in  forty  minutes.  Friend  conversed  with 
friend  across  a  thousand  miles  of  space.  Things  which 
the  Elizabethans  would  have  called  the  wildest  dreams 
became  prosaic  realities. 

Some  of  the  most  acute  thinkers  of  the  century  devoted 
their  lives  to  scientific  investigation.  Men  like  Charles 
Darwin  (1809-1882),  Thomas  Huxley 
(1825-1895),  John  Tyndall  (1820- 
1893),  and  Herbert  Spencer  (1820- 

)  endeavored  to  build  the  stray 

bricks  of  scientific  knowledge  into 
a  philosophical  structure. 

The  Victorian  age  was  the  first 
to  set  forth  clearly  the  evolution 
hypothesis,  which  teaches  the 
orderly  development  of  life  from 
simple  to  complex  forms.  While 

CHARLES    DARWIN 

the   idea  of   evolution   had  sug- 
gested itself  to  many  naturalists,  Darwin  was  the  first  to 
gain  a  wide  hearing  for  the  theory.     His  Origin  of  Species 


388  THE   VICTORIAN  AGE 

by  Natural  Selection  (1859)  was  an  epoch-making  book. 
Spencer  carried  the  doctrine  of  evolution  into  broader 
fields.  In  his  Synthetic  Philosophy  he  applied  it  to  the 
structure,  not  only  of  plants  and  animals,  but  also  of 
society,  morality,  and  religion.  Of  all  the  scientific  thought 
of  the  age,  the  doctrine  of  evolution  has  had  the  most 
influence  on  both  prose  and  poetry.  A  great  scientist 
like  Tyndall  becomes  almost  poetic  in  presenting  his 
conception  of  evolution.  He  says :  — 

"  Not  alone  the  more  ignoble  forms  of  animalcular  or  animal  life,  not 
alone  the  nobler  forms  of  the  horse  and  lion,  not  alone  the  exquisite 
and  wonderful  mechanism  of  the  human  body,  but  the  human  mind 
itself — emotion,  intellect,  will,  and  all  their  phenomena  —  were  once 
latent  in  a  fiery  cloud.  .  .  .  All  our  philosophy,  all  our  poetry,  all  our 
science,  and  all  our  art  —  Plato,  Shakespeare,  Newton,  and  Raphael 
—  are  potential  in  the  fires  of  the  sun." 1 

With  this  we  may  contrast  Tennyson's  poetic  exposition 
of  the  nebular  hypothesis  :  — 

"  This  world  was  once  a  fluid  haze  of  light 
Till  toward  the  center  set  the  starry  tides, 
And  eddied  into  suns,  that  wheeling  cast 
The  planets ;  then  the  monster,  then  the  man."a 

"Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the  deep, 
Where  all  that  was  to  be  in  all  that  was, 
WhirPd  for  a  million  aeons  thro1  the  vast 
Waste  dawn  of  multitudinous-eddying  light."  8 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  note  more  specifically  some 
of  the  ways  in  which  science  has  affected  literature.  We 
shall  find  that  science  has  influenced  the  idea  of  growth, 
the  search  for  truth,  the  way  of  regarding  the  problems  of 
existence,  religious  faith,  ethical  and  social  aims,  and  the 
tendency  toward  analytical  modes  of  thought. 

*  The  Imagination  in  Science.       2  The  Princess,  Canto  II.       8  De  Profundis. 


THE   IDEA  OF   GROWTH  389 

The  Idea  of  Growth.  —  Evolution  has  impressed  on  liter- 
ature and  on  social  philosophy  what  might  be  termed  the 
"  growth  idea."  In  these  two  lines  Browning  thus  expresses 
this  new  idea  of  the  working  of  the  Divine  Power :  — 

"  He  fixed  thee  'mid  this  dance 
Of  plastic  circumstance."1 

Evolution  teaches  the  slow  development  of  the  lower  into 
the  higher.  Preceding  literature,  with  the  conspicuous 
exception  of  Shakespeare's  work,  had,  for  the  most  part, 
presented  individuals  whose  character  was  already  fixed. 
We  are  introduced  to  them  as  monsters  of  wickedness,  or 
as  embodiments  of  strong  will  and  fine  character,  but  we 
are  not  shown  the  various  steps  which  complete  the  moral 
perversion  or  develop  the  strength  of  character.  George 
Eliot,  Thackeray,  and  Robert  Browning,  instead  of  taking  us 
into  a  gallery  of  completed  statues,  show  us  the  sculptors  at 
work  upon  the  newly  quarried  marble.  These  sculptors, 
whose  names  are  Heredity,  Environment,  Will  Power, 
Moral  Feeling,  and  Trial,  in  both  failure  and  success,  are 
chiseling  out  their  statues  in  the  world  studio.  We  can  see 
the  figures  in  process  of  development,  and  note  the  stage 
at  which  the  flaw  in  the  marble  appears  and  mars  the  work. 
The  idea  of  growth  explains  why  this  age  has  taken  a 
different  view  of  social  problems.  Science  has  caused  the 
abandonment  of  the  idea  that  men  can  be  permanently 
uplifted  as  the  result  of  a  sudden  revolution,  like  the  one 
in  France.  Enlightened  men  no  longer  think  that  such 
measures  as  the  killing  of  a  Catiline,  a  Caesar,  or  the 
French  nobles,  or  the  imprisonment  of  some  members  of 
a  corrupt  city  government,  can  cure  the  evils  in  a  state. 
There  has  been  a  wider  realization  of  the  fact  that  there 

1  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra. 
HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  25 


390  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

must  be,  under  the  proper  stimulating  influences,  an  orderly 
growth  from  the  former  condition  into  a  new  one.  Vast 
progress  is  shown  by  the  nineteenth  century  in  its  reali- 
zation of  the  fact  that  changes  in  the  character  of  an 
individual  or  in  the  reformation  of  a  government  are  not 
the  result  of  a  few  minutes'  exposure  to  some  strain  or  of 
a  sudden  upheaval.  Science  has  shown  the  necessity  of 
time  in  the  development  of  all  things.  Tennyson  voices 
this  new  belief :  — 

"Man  as  yet  is  being  made,  and  ere  the  crowning  Age  of  ages, 
Shall  not  aeon  after  aeon  pass  and  touch  him  into  shape  ?  " 1 

Browning  also  emphasizes  it :  — 

"...  progress  is 

The  law  of  life,  man  is  not  Man  as  yet. 
Nor  shall  I  deem  his  object  served,  his  end 
Attained,  his  genuine  strength  put  fairly  forth, 
While  only  here  and  there  a  star  dispels 
The  darkness,  here  and  there  a  towering  mind 
O'erlooks  its  prostrate  fellows."2 

The  Search  for  Truth. — Man  increased  his  dominion 
over  nature  in  proportion  as  he  learned  scientific  truth. 
The  beneficent  results  of  understanding  natural  laws  and 
of  acting  in  harmony  with  them  have  impelled  many  to 
join  in  the  search  for  truth  in  this  direction.  Some  few 
have  caught  fresh  glimpses  of  the  fact  that  the  laws  of  the 
spiritual  world,  as  well  as  of  the  natural  world,  must  be 
understood,  if  man  would  not  introduce  discordant  notes 
into  the  larger  harmony  of  both  worlds.  The  age  is 
distinguished  by  a  groping  after  truth  in  every  direction. 
Physics,  geology,  biology,  psychology,  religion,  sociology, 
ethics,  government,  and  every  other  subject  that  seemed 

1  Making  of  Man.  2  Paracelsus,  Act  V. 


SCIENCE  AND  IMAGINATION  391 

to  point  toward  truth,  —  all  have  had  patient  investi- 
gators. 

We  see  everywhere  a  determination  to  learn  the  truth, 
irrespective  of  where  it  may  lead.  There  has  been  the 
firm  consciousness  that  even  the  heavens  rest  on  pillars  of 
truth,  that  the  truth  can  harm  no  righteous  cause.  Geolo- 
gists investigated  the  records  of  creation  as  carefully  as 
historians  searched  the  state  papers  of  a  bygone  reign. 
Philosophers  sought  the  origin  of  conscience,  the  founda- 
tion of  belief,  the  underlying  truths  of  every  science. 
Men  believed  that  all  these  truths,  when  woven  together, 
would  give  new  unity,  dignity,  and  fullness  to  life. 

Science  and  Imagination.  —  Some  have  insisted  with 
Keats  that  science  would  clip  the  wings  of  imagination. 
Since  a  great  imaginative  poet  does  not  make  his  appear- 
ance on  an  average  of  once  in  a  century,  it  is  too  early  yet 
to  tell  what  the  final  outcome  will  be.  In  the  first  flush  of 
scientific  discoveries,  it  was  thought  that  all  the  mystery 
would  soon  be  eliminated  from  existence,  and  that  the 
sphere  of  imaginative  activity  would  necessarily  be  less- 
ened. This  view  is  less  common  to-day,  for  it  is  now 
generally  recognized  that  evolution  has  merely  substituted 
a  greater  mystery  in  place  of  a  lesser  one. 

Has  any  preceding  age  offered  to  the  imagination  wider 
views  with  more  unfathomed  mystery  than  astronomy  and 
the  seons  of  geology  present  ?  In  Shakespeare's  theater, 
we  see  the  seven  ages  of  man  passing  across  the  stage ; 
in  the  theater  of  the  universe,  we  behold  all  the  offspring 
of  creation  playing  their  parts.  It  seems  safe  to  predict 
that  lack  of  genius  will  remain  the  only  factor  capable  of 
limiting  the  workings  of  imagination. 

It  is  well  to  note  that  as  philosophical  a  nineteenth  cen- 
tury scientist  as  John  Tyndall  wrote  one  of  his  greatest 


392  THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

essays,   The  Imagination    in    Science,  to    show  that   even 
science  could  not  dispense  with  imagination.     He  says  :  — 

"  Philosophers  may  be  right  in  affirming  that  we  cannot  transcend 
experience  ;  but  we  can  at  all  events  carry  it  a  long  way  from  its  origin. 
We  can  also  magnify,  diminish,  qualify,  and  combine  experiences,  so  as 
to  render  them  fit  for  purposes  entirely  new.  We  are  gifted  with  the 
power  of  imagination,  and  by  this  power  we  can  lighten  the  darkness 
which  surrounds  the  world  of  the  senses.  .  .  .  Bounded  and  condi- 
tioned by  cobperant  reason,  imagination  becomes  the  mightiest  instru- 
ment of  the  physical  discoverer.  Newton's  passage  from  a  falling  apple 
to  a  falling  moon  was,  at  the  outset,  a  leap  of  the  imagination." 

Problems  of  Existence.  —  The  hypothesis  of  evolutionary 
development  has  caused  men  to  regard  from  a  new  point  of 
view  the  origin  of  life,  its  worth  here,  and  its  destiny  here- 
after. On  one  side,  evolution  means  continuous  progress 
from  a  lower  to  a  higher  and  a  nobler  form  of  life,  and  the 
entire  world  thus  seems  to  be  on  the  royal  highway  to 
Eden.  Tennyson  proclaims  that  the  human  beings  of  the 
future  shall  be 

"No  longer  half  akin  to  brute, 

For  all  we  thought  and  loved  and  did, 
And  hoped,  and  suffered,  is  but  seed 
Of  what  in  them  is  flower  and  fruit." l 

But  the  message  of  evolution  is  not  entirely  optimistic. 
When  men  pondered  over  Darwin's  famous  demonstration 
of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  they  saw  that  there  were  two 
sides  to  the  evolutionary  shield,  that  for  every  fit  one  who 
survived  to  reach  the  heights,  perhaps  a  thousand  perished, 
and  that  success  might  be  as  dear  to  each  of  the  prostrate 
thousand  as  to  the  fortunate  one.  Tennyson  perceived 
the  ruthless  destructiveness  of  the  natural  world.  Of 
"  Nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw  with  ravine,"  he  says  :  — 

1  In  Mtmoriam,  CXXXI. 


PROBLEMS   OF   EXISTENCE  393 

"  So  careful  of  the  type  she  seems, 
So  careless  of  the  single  life. 

" '  So  careful  of  the  type  ? '  but  no. 

From  scarpe"d  cliff  and  quarried  stone 
She  cries,  '  A  thousand  types  are  gone  : 
I  care  for  nothing,  all  shall  go.'"1 

One  school  of  evolutionists  denied  any  freedom  to  will 
power.  They  taught  that  everything  is  potential  in  the 
nebular  mist  (see  p.  388),  and  that  its  development  is 
under  the  control  of  a  law  as  inexorable  as  that  which 
determines  the  path  of  a  rifle  ball.  Since  Shakespeare 
and  Benedict  Arnold  were  both  potential  in  the  nebula, 
it  had  to  evolve  them  exactly  as  they  were  evolved.  They 
were,  under  this  view,  as  powerless  to  change  themselves, 
as  undeserving  of  either  praise  or  blame,  as  a  bullet  which 
cannot  determine  whether  it  shall  strike  a  target  or  kill 
a  child.  This  school  taught  that  man,  like  every  other 
product  which  the  nebula  was  under  the  necessity  of 
evolving,  is  merely  a  bubble  floating  on 
the  stream  of  an  eternal  Energy,  a  pow- 
erless spectator  of  a  current  which  bears 
him  helplessly  onward  toward  a  great  sea, 
in  which  the  bubble  will  change  its  form 
and  lose  its  individual  existence.  Such 
theories  have  led  toward  materialism,  and 
the  thought  of  the  age  has  been  pro- 
foundly impressed  by  them.  Some 
writers,  like  Matthew  Arnold,  never 
escaped  from  the  doubts  thus  raised.  ALGERNON  C.SWINBURNE 
^Lines  like  these  from  Swinburne  pre- 
sent a  gloomy  picture  of  "the  sleep  eternal,"  with  which 
materialism  endeavors  to  solace  the  weary  :  — 

1  In  Memoriam,  LV.,  LVI. 


394  THE   VICTORIAN  AGE 

"  We  thank  with  brief  thanksgiving 
Whatever  gods  may  be 
That  no  life  lives  forever ; 
That  dead  men  rise  up  never ; 
That  even  the  weariest  river 
Winds  somewhere  safe  to  sea. 

"  Then  star  nor  sun  shall  waken, 
Nor  any  change  of  light ; 
Nor  sound  of  waters  shaken, 
Nor  any  sound  or  sight : 
Nor  wintry  leaves  nor  vernal. 
Nor  days  nor  things  diurnal ; 
Only  the  sleep  eternal 
In  an  eternal  night."  l 

Materialistic  fatalism  leads  naturally  to  pessimistic  theo- 
ries of  life.  The  question,  "  Is  life  worth  living  ?  "  has 
been  asked  on  all  sides.  On  the  supposition  that  this  life 
ends  all,  the  verdict  of  Tennyson,  who  perhaps  more  than 
any  other  poet  reflects  the  moods  of  the  age,  .is  that 

"...  earth  is  darkness  at  the  core, 
And  dust  and  ashes  all  that  is."  2 

Outcome  in  Religious  Thought. — Science  has  certainly 
tended  to  inspire  the  belief  that  the  world's  development 
is  the  result  of  a  growth  more  orderly  than  former  ages  had 
imagined.  On  examining  the  works  of  many  of  the  great- 
est writers  of  the  period,  we  Shall,  however,  find  that  they 
do  not  accept  the  hypothesis  of  a  blind  Energy  that  cares 
nothing  for  a  sparrow's  fall,  an  Energy  that  says :  "  Thy 
brother  shall  not  rise  again,  but  like  a  raindrop  he  shall 
forever  lose  his  identity  in  the  great  Ocean  of  Eternity." 

The  vastness  of  scientific  discovery  merely  stunned 
certain  minds,  while  it  served  to  stimulate  others  to  reach 

1  The  Garden  of  Proserpine.  2  In  Memoriam,  XXXIV. 


OUTCOME  IN  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT  395 

greater  heights  of  spiritual  truth.  While  some  writers 
never  emerged  from  the  shadow  of  doubt,  we  can  still  say 
that  the  greatest  literature  of  the  age  is  resonant  with  the 
voices  of  faith  and  hope.  Carlyle  and  Ruskin  are  power- 
ful religious  teachers.  Carlyle  says  :  — 

"The  man  who  cannot  wonder  (and  worship),  were  he  President 
of  innumerable  Royal  Societies,  and  carried  the  whole  Micanique 
Celeste  and  Hegel's  Philosophy,  and  the  epitome  of  all  laboratories 
and  observatories  with  their  results  in  his  single  head,  is  but  a  pair  of 
spectacles  behind  which  there  is  no  eye.  Let  those  who  have  eyes  look 
through  him,  then  he  may  be  useful."  1 

The  greatest  poets  of  this  age  used  the  vast  stores  of 
fact  which  the  scientist  had  gathered,  as  lenses  for 
deciphering  more  clearly  the  message  from  a  divine  hand. 
Sometimes  this  message  proved  too  complex  for  complete 
human  grasp,  and  Tennyson  exclaims  :  — 

"  I  falter  where  I  firmly  trod, 

And  falling  with  my  weight  of  cares 
Upon  the  great  world's  altar-stairs 
That  slope  thro'  darkness  up  to  God."  2 

However  dark  these  stairs  may  be,  his  creed  is 

"  That  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet ; 
That  not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed, 
Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 
When  God  hath  made  the  pile  complete."  8 

And  Browning,  combining  most  splendidly  his  scientific 
knowledge  with  his  emotional  intensity,  exclaims  with  joy- 
ous hopefulness :  — 

"...  all's  love,  yet  all's  law. 

I  but  open  my  eyes,  —  and  perfection,  no  more  and  no  less, 
In  the  kind  I  imagined,  full-fronts  me,  and  God  is  seen  God 
In  the  star,  in  the  stone,  in  the  flesh,  in  the  soul  and  the  clod. 

1  Sartor  Resartus.  2  In  Memoriam,  LV.  8  Ibid.,  LIV. 


396  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

And  thus  looking  within  and  around  me,  I  ever  renew 
(With  that  stoop  of  the  soul  which  in  bending  upraises  it  too) 
The  submission  of  man's  nothing  perfect  to  God's  all  complete, 
As  by  each  new  obeisance  in  spirit  I  climb  to  his  feet." 1 

Evolution  impressed  on  both  Browning  and  Tennyson 
the  necessity  of  a  hand  that  never  wearies  or  guides 
wrong  in  the  labyrinthine  mazes  of  eternity.  Tennyson, 
who  had  wrestled  with  all  the  doubts  of  the  century  con- 
cerning the  hereafter,  wrote  just  before  his  final  voyage 
across  the  Unknown  Sea :  — 

"I  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 
When  I  have  crost  the  bar."  2 

The  Ethical  and  Social  Spirit.  —  A  striving  for  better 
government,  for  higher  moral  ideals,  and  for  the  general 
uplifting  of  the  masses  is  a  marked  feature  of  the  age. 
The  spirit  of  individualism  reached  its  culmination  at  the 
time  of  the  French  Revolution.  That  spirit  exalted  indi- 
vidual effort  and  looked  on  the  individual  as  unrelated  to 
the  mass  or  to  the  movements  of  the  age.  In  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  may  note  more  organized 
ethical  effort  in  the  direction  of  an  altruism  that  concerns 
itself  more  with  upward  social  movements  and  less  with 
stray  individuals.  Men  have  realized  more  than  ever 
before  that  they  are  their  brothers'  keepers.  The  wrongs 
in  industrialism,  the  inequalities  in  birth  and  opportunity, 
have  received  increased  attention.  In  no  preceding  age 
was  the  philanthropic  spirit  so  eager  to  cure  social  evils. 

Nearly  all  the  great  works  of  the  Victorian  age  are 
imbued  with  an  ethical  purpose.  The  novels  of  Dickens 
paint  the  horrors  of  poverty-stricken  neighborhoods  and 
champion  the  cause  of  helpless  school  children  under 

1  Saul,  XVII.  2  Crossing  the  Bar. 


AN  ANALYTICAL  AGE  397 

brutal  masters.  George  Eliot  shows  the  influences  of 
heredity  and  environment,  and  teaches  a  needed  moral 
lesson  based  on  those  scientific  truths.  The  novel  has 
proved  the  most  effective  ethical  text-book  of  the  century. 
The  poetry  does  something  more  than  paint  beautiful 
pictures.  It  is  mindful  of  our  duty  to  the  unfortunate. 
Tennyson  asks :  — 

"  Is  it  well  that  while  we  range  with  Science,  glorying  in  the  time, 
City  children  soak  and  blacken  soul  and  sense  in  city  slime?  vl 

Browning  shows  how  character  is  tested  and  developed. 
Both  he  and  Tennyson  have  strengthened  the  moral 
courage  of  many  who  were  wavering.  There  is  high 
ethical  aim  in  such  lines  as  these :  — 

"  Follow  Light,  and  do  the  Right  —  for  man  can  half  control  his  doom  — 
Till  you  find  the  deathless  Angel  seated  in  the  vacant  tomb."  2 

If,  perchance,  an  author  turned  aside  from  the  serious 
questions  of  existence  to  the  enjoyment  of  mere  beauty, 
he  seemed  to  feel  that  he  was  a  truant  from  one  of  life's 
lessons  and  shirking  a  responsibility.  The  seriousness  and 
significance  of  existence  were  felt  with  an  oppressive 
weight  by  some  writers,  notably  by  George  Eliot ;  and  all 
the  strongest  spirits  uttered  earnest  ringing  words  upon 
conduct,  ideals  of  living,  and  the  duty  of  man  to  man. 
The  age  is  remarkable  for  ethical  teachers.  Carlyle,  Rus- 
kin,  Browning,  and  George  Eliot  stand  among  the  greatest 
of  those  who  have  been  inspired  with  a  desire  to  uplift  and 
beautify  life. 

An  Analytical  Age. —  Science  turned  the  spectroscope  on 
the  stars  and  determined  their  constituent  elements.  The 
chemist  analyzed  the  bubbling  fountain  and  resolved  it  into 

1  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After.  2  Ibid. 


398  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

hydrogen  and  oxygen.  The  botanist  dissected  the  rose, 
the  daffodil,  and  the  violet.  Science  has  infused  into  Vic- 
torian literature  the  analytical  spirit,  the  desire  to  dissect 
life  in  order  to  discover  the  underlying  springs  of  action. 

The  Elizabethans  had  preferred  to  watch  throbbing  life 
in  its  wonderful  variety  rather  than  to  subject  it  to  minute 
dissection.  In  this  characteristic,  the  two  ages  differ 
widely.  Dowden  says :  "  Shakespeare  had  cared  to  see 
what  things  are,  all  of  pity  and  terror,  all  of  beauty  and 
mirth,  that  human  life  contains, —  Lear  in  the  storm,  and 
Falstaff  in  the  tavern,  and  Perdita  among  her  flowers. 
He  had  said :  '  These  things  are,'  and  had  refused  to  put 
the  question  :  'How  can  these  things  be  ? ' '  The  Vic- 
torian age,  on  the  other  hand,  has  demanded  theories  of 
life,  an  analysis  of  all  the  reasons  why  Hamlet  did  not  kill 
the  King,  or  why  Romeo  loved  Juliet. 

The  Elizabethans  had  loved  to  present  strong  lights  and 
gloomy  shadows,  the  fury  of  a  Tamburlaine  and  the  jeal- 
ousy of  an  Othello,  Macbeth  as  subject,  murderer,  and 
king.  The  uneventful  lives  of  the  rank  and  file  of  human- 
ity had  few  charms  for  the  Elizabethans.  The  nineteenth 
century  alone  has  more  adequately  described  the  multi- 
tudinous host  of  the  commonplace,  which  includes  the  vast 
majority  of  people.  The  common  types  of  life  acquire 
new  interest  for  us  as  we  analyze  them.  A  scientist  who 
can  present  an  intelligent  analysis  of  a  grasshopper  may 
be  as  interesting  as  a  novelist.  The  keen,  searching, 
analytical  genius  of  a  modern  artist  is  required  to  point 
out  interesting  features  in  ordinary  people  and  to  present 
them  with  the  necessary  subtlety,  such  as  George  Eliot 
displays  in  her  Scenes  from  Clerical  Life.  Thackeray 
shows  a  special  gift  in  analyzing  the  motives  of  those 
whom  he  met  in  everyday  life.  Dickens  lacks  this  analyt- 


THOMAS  BABINGTON  MACAULAY  399 

ical  faculty,  but  it  is  possessed  by  far  the  greater  number 
of  modern  novelists.  So  pronounced  has  been  the  ten- 
dency to  dissect  character,  that  the  psychological  novel  is 
as  typical  of  the  Victorian  age  as  the  drama  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan. 

Victorian  poetry  is  largely  introspective  and  it  presents 
a  record  of  thoughts  rather  than  of  actions.  It  is  full  of 
complexities,  analyses,  and  critical  judgments.  Browning 
is  the  prince  of  analytical  poets.  Tennyson  and  Arnold 
are  at  their  best  when  meditating  upon  nature  or  reflect- 
ing upon  life.  The  poetry  in  general  is  marked  not  by  a 
comprehensive  grasp  of  life  as  a  whole,  but  by  a  power  of 
analyzing  certain  problems,  feelings,  motives,  and  types  of 
character  to  serve  as  stepping  stones  toward  the  temple 
of  truth  and  as  a  foundation  for  theories  of  existence. 

THOMAS  BABINGTON   MACAULAY,   1800-1859 

Life.  —  A  prominent  figure  in  the  social  and  political 
life  of  England  during  the  first  part  of  the  century  was 
Thomas  Babington  Macaulay,  a  man  of  brilliant  intel- 
lectual powers,  strict  integrity  of  character,  and  enormous 
capacity  for  work.  He  loved  England  and  gloried  in  her 
liberties  and  her  commercial  prosperity.  He  served  her 
for  many  years  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  he  bent  his 
whole  energy  and  splendid  forensic  talent  in  favor  of  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1832,  which  secured  greater  political  liberty 
for  England. 

He  was  not  a  theorizer,  but  a  practical  man  of  affairs. 
Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  his  political  opinions  were 
ready  made  for  him  by  the  Whig  party,  his  career  in  the 
House  was  never  "  inconsistent  with  rectitude  of  intention 
and  independence  of  spirit."  He  voted  conscientiously 


4OO 


THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 


for  measures,  although  he  personally  sacrificed  hundreds 
of  pounds  by  so  doing. 

He  was  a  remarkable  talker.  A  single  speech  of  his  has 
been  known  to  change  an  entire  vote  in  Parliament.  Un- 
like Coleridge,  he  did  not  indulge  in  monologue,  but 
showed  to  finest  advantage  in  debate.  His  power  of 
memory  was  wonderful.  He  often  startled  an  opponent 
by  quoting  from  a  given  chapter  and  page  of  a  book.  He 
repeated  long  passages  from  Paradise  Lost ;  and  it  is  said 
he  could  have  restored  it  complete,  had  it  all  been  lost. 


THOMAS  BABINGTON   MACAULAY  4OI 

His  disposition  was  sweet  and  his  life  altogether  fortu- 
nate. His  biographer  says  of  him :  "  Descended  from 
Scotch  Presbyterians  —  ministers  many  of  them  —  on  his 
father's  side,  and  from  a  Quaker  family  on  his  mother's, 
he  probably  united  as  many  guarantees  of  'good  birth,' 
in  the  moral  sense  of  the  word,  as  could  be  found  in  these 
islands  at  the  beginning  of  the  century." 

He  was  born  at  Rothley  Temple,  Leicestershire,  in  1800. 
He  was  prepared  for  college  at  good  private  schools,  and 
sent  to  Cambridge  when  he  was  eighteen.  He  studied  law 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1825,  but,  in  the  following 
year,  he  determined  to  adopt  literature  as  a  profession, 
owing  to  the  welcome  given  to  his  Essay  on  Milton.  He 
had  written  epics,  histories,  and  metrical  romances  prior 
to  the  age  of  ten,  so  that  his  choice  of  a  profession  was 
neither  hasty  nor  unexpected. 

He  continued  from  this  time  to  write  for  the  Edinburgh 
Revieiv,  but  literature  was  not  the  only  field  of  his  activity. 
He  had  a  seat  in  Parliament,  and  he  held  several  positions 
under  the  Government.  He  was  never  unemployed.  Many 
of  his  Essays  were  written  before  breakfast,  while  the  other 
members  of  the  household  were  asleep. 

He  was  a  voracious  reader.  If  he  walked  in  the  country 
or  in  London,  he  always  carried  a  book  to  read.  He  spent 
some  years  in  the  Government's  service  in  India.  On  the 
long  voyage  over,  he  read  incessantly,  and  on  the  return 
trip  he  studied  the  German  language. 

He  was  beyond  the  age  of  forty  when  he  found  the 
leisure  to  begin  his  History  of  England.  He  worked 
uninterruptedly  and  broke  down  early.  He  was  but 
fifty-nine  years  old  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1859. 

With  his  large,  fine  physique,  his  sturdy  common 
sense,  his  interest  in  practical  matters,  and  his  satisfac- 


402  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

tion  in  the  physical  improvements  of  the  people,  Macau- 
lay  was  a  fine  specimen  of  the  English  gentleman. 

Essays  and  Poetry.  —  Like  De  Quincey,  Macaulay  was 
a  frequent  contributor  to  periodicals.  He  wrote  graphic 
essays  on  men  of  action  and  historical  periods.  The 
essays  most  worthy  of  mention  in  this  class  are  Sir 
William  Temple,  Lord  Clive,  Warren  Hastings,  and 
William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham.  Some  of  his  essays  on 
English  writers  and  literary  subjects  are  still  classic. 
Among  these  are  Milton,  Dry  den,  Addison,  S  out  hey  s 
Edition  of  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Crokers  Edition  of  Bos- 
weirs  Life  of  Johnson,  and  the  biographical  essays  on 
Bunyan,  Goldsmith,  and  Johnson,  contributed  to  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica.  Although  they  may  lack  deep 
spiritual  insight  into  the  fundamental  principles  of  life 
and  literary  criticism,  these  essays  are  still  deservedly 
read  by  most  students  of  English  history  and  literature. 

Gosse  says  :  "  The  most  restive  of  juvenile  minds,  if 
induced  to  enter  one  of  Macaulay's  essays,  is  almost 
certain  to  reappear  at  the  other  end  of  it  gratified,  and, 
to  an  appreciable  extent,  cultivated."  These  Essays  have 
developed  a  taste  for  general  reading  in  numbers  who 
could  not  have  been  induced  to  begin  with  anything  dry 
or  hard.  Many  who  have  read  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson 
during  the  past  fifty  years  say  that  Macaulay  first  turned 
their  attention  to  that  fascinating  work.  In  the  following 
quotation  from  an  essay  on  that  great  biography,  we  may 
note  his  love  for  interesting  concrete  statements,  presented 
in  a  vigorous  and  clear  style  :  — 

"Johnson  grown  old,  Johnson  in  the  fullness  of  his  fame  and  in  the 
enjoyment  of  a  competent  fortune,  is  better  known  to  us  than  any  other 
man  in  history.  Everything  about  him,  his  coat,  his  wig,  his  figure, 
his  face,  his  scrofula,  his  St.  Vitus's  dance,  his  rolling  walk,  his  blink- 


THOMAS  BABINGTON  MACAULAY  403 

ing  eye,  the  outward  signs  which  too  clearly  marked  his  approbation  of 
his  dinner,  his  insatiable  appetite  for  fish  sauce  and  .veal  pie  with  plums, 
his  inextinguishable  thirst  for  tea,  his  trick  of  touching  the  posts  as  he 
walked  ...  all  are  as  familiar  to  us  as  the  objects  by  which  we  have 
been  surrounded  from  childhood." 

Macaulay  wrote  some  stirring  ballad  poetry,  known  as 
Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,  which  gives  a  good  picture  of 
the  proud  Roman  Republic  in  its  valorous  days.  These 
ballads  have  something  of  Scott's  healthy,  manly  ring. 
They  contain  rhetorical  and  martial  stanzas  which  boys 
love,  but  Macaulay  lacked  that  spirituality  and  passion 
for  beauty  which  are  necessary  in  a  great  poet. 

History  of  England.  —  Macaulay  had  for  some  time 
wondered  why  some  one  should  not  do  for  real  history 
what  Scott  had  done  fol:  imaginary  history.  Macaulay 
accordingly  proposed  to  himself  the  task  of  writing  a 
history  which  should  be  more  accurate  than  Hume's 
and  possess  something  of  the  interest  of  Scott's  historical 
romances.  In  1848  appeared  the  first  two  volumes  of 
TV/,?  History  of  England  from  the  Accession  of  James  II. 
Macaulay  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  work,  in  sales 
and  popular  appreciation,  surpass  the  novels.  He  in- 
tended to  trace  the  development  of  English  liberty  from 
James  II.  to  the  death  of  George  III.,  but  his  minute 
method  of  treatment  allowed  him  to  unfold  only  sixteen 
years  of  that  important  period,  from  1685  to  1701. 

Macaulay's  pages  are  not  a  graveyard  for  the  dry 
bones  of  history.  The  human  beings  that  figure  in  his 
chapters  have  been  restored  to  life  by  his  touch.  We  see 
Charles  II.  "  before  the  dew  was  off  in  St.  James's  Park 
striding  among  the  trees,  playing  with  his  spaniels,  and 
flinging  corn  to  his  ducks."  We  gaze  for  a  moment 
with  the  English  courtiers  at  William  III.:  — 


404  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

"  They  observed  that  the  King  spoke  in  a  somewhat  imperious  tone, 
even  to  the  wife  to  whom  he  owed  so  much,  and  whom  he  sincerely 
loved  and  esteemed.  They  were  amused  and  shocked  to  see  him, 
when  the  Princess  Anne  dined  with  him,  and  when  the  first  green  peas 
of  the  year  were  put  on  the  table,  devour  the  whole  dish  without  offer- 
ing a  spoonful  to  her  Royal  Highness,  and  they  pronounced  that  this 
great  soldier  and  politician  was  no  better  than  a  low  Dutch  bear."  * 

Parts  of  the  History  are  masterpieces  of  the  narrator's 
art.  A  trained  novelist,  unhampered  by  historical  facts, 
could  scarcely  have  surpassed  the  last  part  of  Macau- 
lay's  eighth  chapter  in  relating  the  trial  of  the  seven 
Bishops.  Our  blood  tingles  to  the  tips  of  our  fingers 
as  we  read  in  the  fifth  chapter  the  story  of  Monmouth's 
rebellion  and  the  Bloody  Assizes  of  Judge  Jeffreys. 

Macaulay  shirked  no  labor  in  preparing  himself  to 
write  the  History.  He  read  thousands  of  pages  of  au- 
thorities and  he  personally  visited  the  great  battlefields 
in  order  to  give  accurate  descriptions.  Notwithstanding 
such  preparation,  the  value  of  his  History  is  impaired,  not 
only  because  he  sometimes  displays  partisanship,  but  also 
because  he  fails  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  under- 
lying social  movements.  He  does  not  adopt  the  modern 
idea  that  history  is  a  record  of  social  growth,  moral  as 
well  as  physical.  While  a  graphic  picture  of  the  exterior 
aspects  of  society  is  presented,  we  are  given  no  profound 
insight  into  the  interior  movements  of  a  great  constitu- 
tional epoch.  We  may  say  of  both  Gibbon  and  Macaulay 
that  they  are  too  often  mere  surveyors,  rather  than  geol- 
ogists, of  the  historic  field.2  The  popularity  of  the  History 
is  not  injured  by  this  method. 

Macaulay's   grasp  of  fact  never  weakens,  his  love  of 

1  History  of  England,  Vol.  III.,  Chap.  XI. 
4Morison's  Life  of  Macaulay,  p.  139. 


THOMAS   BABINGTON   MACAULAY  405 

manly  courage  never  relaxes,  his  joy  in  bygone  time  never 
fails,  his  zeal  for  the  free  institutions  of  England  never 
falters,  and  his  style  is  never  dull.  While  scholars  may 
study  other  works,  the  generality  of  mankind  will  prefer 
to  read  Macaulay. 

General  Characteristics. — The  chief  quality  of  Macau- 
lay's  style  is  its  clearness.  Contemporaries  said  that 
the  printers'  readers  never  had  to  read  his  sentences  a 
second  time  to  understand  them.  This  clearness  is  at- 
tained, first,  by  the  structure  of  his  sentences.  He 
avoids  entangling  clauses,  obscure  references  in  his  pro- 
nouns, and  long  sentences  whenever  they  are  in  danger 
of  becoming  involved  and  causing  the  reader  to  lose  his 
way.  In  the  second  place,  if  the  idea  is  a  difficult  one 
or  not  likely  to  be  apprehended  at  its  full  worth,  Macau- 
lay  repeats  his  meaning  from  a  different  point  of  view 
and  throws  additional  light  on  the  subject  by  varied  illus- 
trations. In  the  third  place,  his  works  abound  in  concrete 
ideas,  which  are  more  readily  grasped  than  abstract  ones. 
He  is  not  content  to  write  :  "  The  smallest  actual  good 
is  better  than  the  most  magnificent  promise  of  impos- 
sibilities," but  he  gives  the  concrete  equivalent :  "  An 
acre  in  Middlesex  is  worth  a  principality  in  Utopia." 

It  is  possible  for  style  to  be  both  clear  and  lifeless,  but 
his  style  is  as  energetic  as  it  is  clear.  In  narration  he 
takes  high  rank.  His  erudition,  displayed  in  the  vast 
stores  of  fact  which  his  memory  retained  for  effective 
service  in  every  direction,  is  worthy  of  special  mention. 

While  his  excellences  may  serve  as  a  model,  he  has 
faults  which  admirers  would  do  well  to  avoid.  His  fond- 
ness for  contrast  often  leads  him  to  make  one  picture  too 
bright  and  the  other  too  dark.  His  love  of  antithesis  has 
the  merit  of  arousing  attention  in  his  readers  and  of 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT. 26 


406 


THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 


crystallizing  some  thoughts  into  enduring  epigrammatic 
form,  but  he  is  often  led  to  sacrifice  exact  truth  in  order 
to  obtain  fine  contrasts,  as  in  the  following :  — 

"The  Puritan  hated  bear-baiting,  not  because  it  gave  pain  to  the 
bear,  but  because  it  gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators." 

Macaulay  lacked  sympathy  with  theories  and  aspira- 
tions which  could  not  accomplish  immediate  practical 
results.  His  works  are  confined  to  the  treatment  of  the 
material  world.  They  are  not  illumined  with  the  spiritual 
glow  that  sheds  luster  on  the  pages  of  Coleridge,  Carlyle, 
and  Ruskin. 


CARLYLE'S    BIRTHPLACE 


THOMAS  CARLYLE,   1795-1881 


Life.  —  In  striking  contrast  to  the  placid  temperament 
and  realistic  common  sense  of  Macaulay,  are  the  passion- 
ate eagerness  and  idealism  of  Carlyle.  This  son  of  Scotch 


THOMAS   CARLYLE  407 

peasants  was  bred  upon  the  stern  doctrines  of  the  Kirk  of 
Scotland ;  he  was  surrounded  by  "  an  inflexible  element 
of  authority  "  in  his  cheerless  home ;  he  was  acquainted 
with  the  stings  of  poverty;  he  endured  the  sufferings  of 
acute  dyspepsia;  and  he  knew  the  bitterness  of  a  doubt- 
ing soul. 

He  was  born  at  Ecclefechan,  Dumfriesshire,  in  1795. 
His  parents  destined  him  for  the  church,  so  they  sent  him 
to  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  He  soon  discovered  that 
his  views  were  not  in  accord  with  the  church's  teachings, 
and,  with  much  sadness,  he  assured  his  parents  that  he 
could  not  realize  their  ambitions.  His  somber,  passionate 
nature  suffered  intensely  during  the  following  years  of 
religious  doubt.  He  lost  faith  both  in  himself  and  in  a 
God,  and  shrank  from  the  pains  of  life.  Carlyle's  long 
and  troubled  vigils  were  finally  crowned  with  joy.  He 
seemed  suddenly  to  pierce  the  gloom  and  to  find  his  God. 
This  inner  conflict  left  its  traces  upon  Carlyle's  entire 
life.  A  powerful  record  of  his  experience  is  found  in 
Sartor  Resartus. 

During  this  dark  period,  Carlyle  was  writing  for 
magazines  and  striving  to  succeed  in  the  uncongenial 
drudgery  of  teaching.  In  1819  he  began  the  study 
of  German.  He  translated  Goethe's  novel,  Wilhelm 
Meister,  and  wrote  a  Life  of  Schiller.  Together  with 
Coleridge  and  De  Quincey,  Carlyle  was  instrumental  in 
acquainting  the  English  public  with  German  philosophy 
and  literature. 

He  married  in  1826.  His  wife,  Jane  Welsh,  was  a 
woman  of  brilliant  intellectual  attainments.  She  recog- 
nized her  husband's  genius,  and  by  her  timely  words  of 
praise  strengthened  him  against  the  ridicule  of  the  critics. 
Despite  her  quick  temper,  which  took  fire  at  Carlyle's 


408 


THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 


querulousness,  she  was  the  ideal  wife  for  him.  They 
loved  each  other  passionately.  In  1828  they  went  to 
her  lonely  farm  at  Craigenputtock,  where,  for  six  years, 
Carlyle  was  immersed  in  study.  They  moved  to  London 
in  1834,  and  lived  very  quietly  at  Chelsea,  where  Carlyle 
continued  his  literary  labors. 

Carlyle  did  not  attain  Macaulay's  sudden  and  wide- 
spread popularity.  Carlyle  had  to  wait  years  for  a  public, 
but  he  finally  won  it.  In  1865  he  was  highly  honored 
by  the  Edinburgh  University,  which  elected  him  Lord 
Rector.  He  was  inaugurated  in  1866.  His  gruff  but 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  409 

kindly  heart  was  deeply  touched,  and  his  speech  of  ac- 
ceptance was  full  of  emotion. 

A  few  weeks  later,  his  happiness  was  blighted  by  the 
announcement  of  his  wife's  death  during  his  stay  in  Scot- 
land. He  lived  fifteen  lonely  years  after  this  loss.  His 
sad  life  ended  in  1881,  and  on  a  bleak  February  day  he 
was  laid  beside  his  father  in  Ecclefechan. 

Sartor  Resartus.  —  Carlyle's  most  daring  and  original 
work  is  Sartor  Resartus  (1833-1834),  which  means  "the 
tailor  patched."  It  pretends,  half  humorously,  to  be  a 
confused  assortment  of  some  German  philosopher's  manu- 
scripts; but  it  is,  in  reality,  Carlyle's  own  mystical 
interpretation  of  life.  He  calls  the  work  a  Philosophy 
of  Clothes,  using  the  word  "  clothes "  symbolically  to 
signify  the  outward  expression  of  the  spiritual.  For 
example,  since  man's  spirit  expresses  itself  in  thoughts 
and  deeds,  these  are  the  clothes  of  the  human  spirit ;  and 
since  God  reveals  himself  in  the  physical  universe,  there- 
fore it  is  the  clothing  of  the  divine  spirit.  Carlyle  says : — 

"  It  is  written,  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth  shall  fade  away  like  a 
Vesture ;  which  indeed  they  are :  the  Time-vesture  of  the  Eternal. 
Whatsoever  sensibly  exists,  whatsoever  represents  Spirit  to  Spirit,  is 
properly  a  Clothing,  a  suit  of  Raiment,  put  on  for  a  season,  and  to  be 
laid  off.  Thus  in  this  one  pregnant  subject  of  CLOTHES,  rightly 
understood,  is  included  all  that  men  have  thought,  dreamed,  done,  and 
been :  the  whole  External  Universe  and  what  it  holds  is  but  Clothing ; 
and  the  essence  of  all  Science  lies  in  the  PHILOSOPHY  OF 
CLOTHES." 

The  message  that  Carlyle  delivers  to  his  generation  in 
Sartor  Resartus  is  that  man  must  tear  away  these  vest- 
ments, which  are  but  semblances,  and  pierce  to  the  inner 
spirit,  which  is  the  reality.  The  century's  material  prog- 
ress, which  was  such  cause  of  pride  to  Macaulay,  afforded 


4IO  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

Carlyle  no  sense  of  gratification.  He  emphasizes  the 
need  of  a  quickening  spirit  for  his  time.  He  denounces 
the  money-making  basis  of  modern  life,  the  selfishness 
of  industrialism,  the  material  explanations  which  science 
finds  for  the  sacred  emotions  of  duty,  sacrifice,  and  wor- 
ship. He  holds  up  to  scorn  the  philosophy  which  takes 
pleasure  in  a  nation's  commercial  welfare,  when  her 
people's  heart  is  still  hard  and  unloving.  He  says  of  the 
utilitarian  philosophy,  which  he  hated  intensely:  — 

"  It  spreads  like  a  sort  of  Dog-madness ;  till  the  whole  World-kennel 
will  be  rabid." 

He  uses  all  the  power  of  his  grotesque  and  caustic  humor 
to  satirize  the  lack  of  spirituality  in  the  age,  and  he  does 
not  shrink  from  mere  ugliness  of  expression  when  he  is 
aroused.  He  writes :  — 

"  But  what,  in  these  dull  unimaginative  days,  are  the  terrors  of  Con- 
science to  the  diseases  of  the  Liver !  Not  on  Morality,  but  on  Cookery, 
let  us  build  our  stronghold :  there  brandishing  our  frying  pan  as  censer, 
let  us  offer  sweet  incense  to  the  Devil,  and  live  on  the  fat  things  he  has 
provided  for  his  Elect ! " 

The  gospel  of  Carlyle's  teaching  is  work.  He  teaches 
that  all  men  are  ennobled  by  work,  honestly  performed, 
no  matter  how  humble  it  is.  In  his  peculiarly  emphatic 
way,  he  says  :  — 

"  Be  no  longer  a  Chaos,  but  a  World,  or  even  Worldkin.  Produce! 
Produce!  Were  it  but  the  pitifullest  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  Prod- 
uct, produce  it,  in  God's  name!  'Tis  the  utmost  thou  hast  in  thee : 
out  with  it,  then." 

This  production  of  Carlyle,  which  hurls  satiric  denun- 
ciations at  the  shams  and  trivialities  of  the  world,  and  calls 
meri  to  earnest  activity,  proved  a  powerful  stimulant  to 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  411 

the  younger  generation  of  Englishmen.  Many  were  thus 
roused  from  their  lethargy  and  complacency  to  action,  to 
reforms,  and  to  a  trust  in  eternal  spiritual  truth. 

The  French  Revolution.  —  Carlyle's  manner  of  handling 
incidents  and  characters  is  so  extremely  dramatic  that  his 
histories  have  been  said  to  resemble  more  closely  the  his- 
torical plays  of  Shakespeare  than  the  works  of  ordinary 
historians.  The  French  Revolution  (1837)  is  perhaps  the 
most  dramatic  of  all  Carlyle's  works.  It  is  not  a  flowing, 
connected  narrative  like  Macaulay's  History  of  England, 
but  a  succession  of  striking  pageants  that  are  alive  with 
action  and  lifelike  characters.  Carlyle  used  the  ro- 
mancer's privilege  of  selection  ;  and,  from  out  a  mass  of 
material  which  would  have  bewildered  men  of  less  ability, 
he  chose  for  powerful  presentation  a  limited  number  of 
significant  and  picturesque  incidents. 

The  death  of  Louis  XV.,  the  storming  of  the  Bastille, 
the  insurrection  of  the  women,  the  march  of  the  mob  to 
Versailles  in  search  of  royalty,  the  horrors  of  the  Reign 
of  Terror,  and  other  equally  ghastly  scenes,  are  presented 
with  distinctness  and  dramatic  force.  The  individuals 
who  were  the  life  of  the  Revolution  are  all  strongly  drawn. 
Lafayette,  Mirabeau,  Danton,  Robespierre,  and  many  an- 
other stand  forth  like  the  flesh  and  blood  realities  which 
they  once  were. 

Carlyle  seems  to  get  into  the  very  midst  of  a  mob  and 
catch  its  feelings,  and  to  reach  the  hearts  of  his  characters 
and  know  their  springs  of  action.  He  neither  describes 
men,  assemblages,  and  crowds  from  the  outside,  like  Ma- 
caulay,  nor  submits  them  to  careful  dissection,  like  De 
Quincey.  Carlyle  describes  everything  as  though  he  had 
been  a  participator,  so  that  there  is  a  warm  personal  ele- 
ment in  all  his  men  and  scenes.  In  the  following  passage, 


412  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

he  bears  the  reader  with  the  mob  as  it  breaks  into  Ver- 
sailles :  — 

"  The  terrorstruck  Bodyguards  fly,  bolting  and  Barricading ;  it  fol- 
lows. Whitherward?  Through  hall  on  hall :  wo, now!  toward  the  Queen's 
Suite  of  Rooms,  in  the  furthest  room  of  which  the  Queen  is  now  asleep. 
Five  sentinels  rush  through  that  long  Suite ;  they  are  in  the  Anteroom 
knocking  loud :  '  Save  the  Queen  ! '  Trembling  women  fall  at  their  feet 
with  tears  ;  are  answered  :  '  Yes,  we  will  die  ;  save  ye  the  Queen! ' 

"Tremble  not,  women,  but  haste:  for,  lo,  another  voice  shouts  far 
through  the  outermost  door,  '  Save  the  Queen ! '  and  the  door  is  shut. 
It  is  brave  Miomandre's  voice  that  shouts  this  second  warning.  He 
has  stormed  across  imminent  death  to  do  it ;  fronts  imminent 
death,  having  done  it.  ...  She  [the  Queen]  flies  for  her  life,  across 
the  CEil-de-Boeuf;  against  the  main  door  of  which,  too,  Insurrection 
batters.  She  is  in  the  King's  Apartment,  in  the  King's  arms,  she  clasps 
her  children  amid  a  faithful  few." 

The  dramatic  excitement,  the  vividness,  and  the  vigor  of 
treatment  which  this  selection  shows,  combine  to  make 
The  French  Revolution  a  stirring  recital. 

Carlyle's  power  of  making  some  great  personality  the 
center  of  every  movement  adds  much  to  the  interest  of 
his  work.  Mirabeau  is  one  of  the  most  imposing  figures. 
He  is  made  known  by  a  few  bold,  graphic  touches.  He 
is  described  as  a  man 

"Through  whose  shaggy  beetle-brows,  and  rough-hewn,  seamed, 
carbuncled  face,  there  look  natural  ugliness,  smallpox,  incontinence, 
bankruptcy,  —  and  burning  fire  of  genius. 

"  But  now  if  Mirabeau  is  the  greatest,  who  of  these  Six  Hundred 
may  be  the  meanest?  Shall  we  say,  that  anxious,  slight,  ineffectual- 
looking  man,  under  thirty,  in  spectacles ;  his  eyes  (were  the  glasses 
off)  troubled,  careful  ?  " 

This  is  the  "  greenish  coloured "  Robespierre.  Carlyle 
delights  in  bringing  out  such  contrasts  in  character  as 
these  men  afford. 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  413 

Whatever  found  lodgment  in  Carlyle's  brain  seems  to 
have  taken  some  definite  form  and  to  have  become  a  pic- 
ture. It  is  his  manner  of  painting  distinct  pictures  that 
constitutes  his  chief  power  in  historical  writing.  It  is  by 
means  of  his  pictorial  vividness  that  the  reader  gains  such 
an  intense  realization  of  the  wild  chaos,  the  frenzy,  and 
the  blood-curdling  madness  of  the  French  Revolutionists. 

Carlyle's  "Real  Kings." — Carlyle  believed  that  "uni- 
versal history,  the  history  of  what  man  has  accomplished 
in  this  world,  is  at  bottom  the  history  of  the  great  men 
who  have  worked  here."  In  accordance  with  this  belief, 
he  studied,  not  the  slow  growth  of  the  people,  but  the 
lives  of  the  world's  great  geniuses. 

In  his  course  of  lectures  entitled  Heroes  and  Hero 
Worship  (1841),  he  considers  The  Hero  as  Prophet,  The 
Hero  as  Poet,  The  Hero  as  Priest,  and  The  Hero  as  King, 
and  shows  how  history  has  been  molded  by  men  like 
Mohammed,  Shakespeare,  Luther,  and  Napoleon.  It  is 
such  men  as  these  whom  Carlyle  calls  "kings,"  beside 
whom  "emperors,"  "popes,"  and  "potentates"  are  as 
nothing.  He  believed  that  there  was  always  living  some 
man  worthy  to  be  the  "real  king"  over  men,  and  such  a 
kingship  was  Carlyle's  ideal  of  government.  The  diffi- 
culty lay  only  in  the  discovery  of  the  rightful  king. 

Oliver  Cromwell  was  one  of  Carlyle's  great  heroes. 
The  edition  of  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches  (1845)  is 
Carlyle's  most  valuable  book  from  a  scholar's  point  of 
view,  because  this  work  was  the  first  to  present  the  char- 
acter of  the  Protector  in  its  full  strength  and  greatness. 
In  opposition  to  the  rankest  prejudices  of  the  public, 
Carlyle  proved  once  for  all  that  Cromwell  was  a  "real 
king  "  whose  memory  all  Englishmen  should  honor. 

The  Life  of  John  Sterling  (1851)  is  a  fair,  true,  and 


414  THE   VICTORIAN  AGE 

touching  biography.  Carlyle  knew  Sterling  well  and  de- 
scribed his  faults  and  virtues,  alike,  with  tender  sympathy. 
After  reading  the  book,  George  Eliot  said  she  wished  that 
more  men  of  genius  would  write  biographies. 

Carlyle's  next  attempt  at  biography  grew  into  the  mass- 
ive History  of  Friedrich  II,  (1858-1865),  which  includes 
a  survey  of  European  history  in  that  dreary  century  which 
preceded  the  French  Revolution.  "  Friedrich  is  by  no 
means  one  of  the  perfect  demigods."  He  is  "to  the  last 
a  questionable  hero."  However,  "in  his  way  he  is  a 
Reality,"  one  feels  "that  he  always  means  what  he 
speaks ;  grounds  his  actions,  too,  on  what  he  recognizes 
for  the  truth ;  and,  in  short,  has  nothing  of  the  Hypocrite 
or  Phantasm."  Despite  his  tyranny  and  his  bloody  career, 
he,  therefore,  is  another  of  Carlyle's  "real  kings."  While 
this  work  is  a  history  of  modern  Europe,  Friedrich  is  al- 
ways the  central  figure.  He  gives  to  these  six  volumes 
a  human  note,  a  glowing  interest  of  personal  adventure, 
and  a  oneness  that  are  remarkable  in  so  vast  a  work. 

General  Characteristics.  —  Carlyle  has  been  called  the 
"  Censor  of  the  age."  With  biting  satire  and  contemptu- 
ous scorn,  he  lashes  this  "swine's  trough"  of  a  world, 
with  its  "  Pig  science,  Pig  enthusiasm  and  Devotion." 
He  is  the  champion  of  spiritual  truth  in  opposition  to  the 
material  tendencies  which  gave  Macaulay  so  much  satis- 
faction. Carlyle  urges  men  to  cease  yearning  for  "pig's 
wash,"  by  which  he  means  material  comfort,  and  to  seek 
after  the  everlasting  light  of  truth  and  duty.  "  Do  thy  Duty, 
the  Duty  that  lies  nearest  thee,"  he  says  again  and  again. 

A  subject  had  to  possess  strong  human  interest  in 
order  to  appeal  to  Carlyle.  Metaphysics,  technical  liter- 
ary criticisms,  and  economic  histories  had  no  attraction 
for  him.  Sartor  Resartns  is  not  a  bare  philosophical 


THOMAS   CARLYLE  415 

treatise.  The  fears,  doubts,  beliefs,  and  ideals  of  Carlyle's 
own  palpitating  heart  are  the  subject  of  the  work.  His 
literary  criticisms  of  Burns,  Voltaire,  Johnson,  and  Goethe 
judge  the  men  by  their  characters  and  purposes  and 
not  by  their  purely  literary  skill.  His  histories  are  not 
made  up  of  abstract  movements  and  scientific  economic 
causes,  but  of  living,  suffering  men  and  women,  whose 
passions,  characters,  and  sacrifices  have  led  to  the  move- 
ments which  constitute  history.  Carlyle  is  not  a  cool, 
logical  reasoner,  but  a  seer  and  a  revealer  who  quickens 
history  and  philosophy  with  the  breath  of  imagination,  and 
who  speaks  with  the  authority  of  a  prophet  and  a  priest. 

He  has  wonderful  richness  of  figurative  language.  It 
seems  more  natural  for  him  to  use  metaphors  than  simple 
terms.  In  describing  Daniel  Webster,  Carlyle  speaks  of 
"  the  tanned  complexion,  that  amorphous  crag-like  face ; 
the  dull  black  eyes  under  their  precipice  of  brows,  like 
dull  anthracite  furnaces  needing  only  to  be  blown,  the 
mastiff-mouth,  accurately  closed."  His  vocabulary  abounds 
in  unusual  metaphorical  epithets,  rare  or  new  compounds, 
and  words  which  he  coined  himself  and  engrafted  upon 
the  language. 

In  style,  as  in  philosophy,  he  presents  a  striking  con- 
trast to  Macaulay.  Carlyle's  sentences  are  loose,  dis- 
jointed, and  broken  by  frequent  interjections.  He  is  de- 
clamatory and  rugged  and  seldom  attains  smoothness  or 
harmony.  His  style,  on  the  whole,  is  like  the  man,  origi- 
nal, earnest,  fiery,  and  forceful.  It  has  the  directness  of 
a  personal  spoken  appeal.  While  this  style  is  frequently 
discordant,  and  sometimes  theatrical,  it  can  become,  in  his 
intensest  moments,  poetic,  full  of  deepest  invective  or  noble 
figure,  and  ablaze  with  words  that  come  "flamingly  from 
the  heart  of  a  living  man." 


416 


THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 


JOHN   RUSKIN,  1819-1900 

Life. — The  great  disciple  of  Thomas  Carlyle  was  John 
Ruskin,  also  a  man  of  earnest  and  dogmatic  nature,  and 
of  lofty  and  inspiring  ideals.  Like  his  master,  Ruskin  re- 
gretted the  mechanical  humdrum  and  the  spiritual  dullness 
of  society,  and  he  labored  to  construct  a  social  system 
founded  upon  nobler  objects  than  those  of  trade. 

Ruskin  was  born  in  London  in  1819.  Both  of  his  par- 
ents were  Scotch,  and  both  possessed  the  honesty,  piety, 


JOHN    RUSKIN  417 

and  unbending  will  characteristic  of  the  best  element  of 
that  race.  John  Ruskin  was  their  only  child  and  their  one 
idol.  He  had  the  best  tutors,  the  choicest  books  and 
paintings,  and  the  most  costly  education  which  Oxford 
could  afford.  He  gratefully  returned  this  care  with  unfail- 
ing attention  to  his  parents  throughout  their  lives. 

Ruskin's  home  training  was  rigidly  Puritanical.  He 
says  :  "Nothing  was  ever  promised  me  that  was  not  given ; 
nothing  ever  threatened  me  that  was  not  inflicted ;  and 
nothing  ever  told  me  that  was  not  true."  Another  mold- 
ing power  in  his  early  education  was  his  daily  lesson  in  the 
Bible.  The  Scriptures  became  so  familiar  to  him  that  quota- 
tions from  them  slipped  unconsciously  into  his  speech,  and 
his  early  writings  are  strongly  tinged  with  the  eloquence 
of  the  Hebrew  Prophets. 

While  still  a  small  child,  Ruskin  traveled  with  his  par- 
ents through  England,  Scotland,  Italy,  and  Switzerland. 
His  passion  for  nature  was  thus  early  fostered.  He  became 
a  close  student  of  the  sky,  the  mountains,  the  rivers,  and 
the  fields.  These  trips  mark  an  important  epoch  in  his 
career,  for  they  led  him  to  keep  a  diary  in  which  we  find 
him  dwelling  fondly  on  the  description  of  landscapes  and 
the  criticism  of  art.  He  thus  acquired  practice  in  the 
special  field  of  literature  in  which  he  afterwards  became 
so  famous.  His  first  great  volume  of  art  criticism  was 
published  when  he  was  twenty-four.  This  was  followed 
by  repeated  successes  in  the  same  field,  until  he  became 
one  of  the  most  note'd  of  art  critics. 

After  1860  Ruskin  expended  much  thought  on  plans  to 
better  the  conditions  of  humanity.  This  course  was  per- 
haps the  only  one  which  he  ever  took  in  open  defiance  of 
his  parents.  They  could  not  sympathize  with  his  founding 
of  libraries,  museums,  art  schools,  his  building  of  sanitary 


41 8  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

tenement  houses,  and  his  manual  labor.  It  is  said  that  his 
fortune  of  ;£  180,000  amounted  to  only  £  18,000  after  his 
expenditures  for  the  poor  had  been  deducted.  He  taught 
art  at  the  Workingmen's  College.  With  his  own  hands 
he  wielded  a  pick,  and  he  influenced  some  other  Oxford 
enthusiasts  to  aid  in  building  for  farmers  a  road  leading 
into  London.  His  greatest  undertaking  was  the  founding 
of  an  ideal  village.  The  project  was  known  as  St.  George's 
Guild.  All  competition  was  discarded,  and  a  healthy,  un- 
selfish, out-of-door  life  was  encouraged.  Some  men  and 
women  appreciated  the  benefits  of  this  community,  but, 
on  the  whole,  the  experiment  proved  little  more  than  an 
expensive  luxury. 

Ruskin's  noble  endeavors  were  so  misunderstood  by 
his  neighbors  that  he  was  thought  to  be  insane.  He 
says  in  Fors  Clavigera:  "  Because  I  have  passed  my  life 
in  almsgiving,  not  in  fortune  hunting;  because  I  have 
labored  always  for  the  honor  of  others,  not  of  my  own, 
and  have  chosen  rather  to  make  men  look  at  Turner  and 
Luini,  than  to  form  or  exhibit  the  skill  of  my  own  hand ; 
because  I  have  lowered  my  rents,  and  assured  the  com- 
fortable lives  of  my  poor  tenants,  instead  of  taking  from 
them  all  I  could  force  for  the  roofs  they  needed  ;  because  I 
love  a  wood  walk  better  than  a  London  street ;  and  would 
rather  watch  a  sea  gull  fly  than  shoot  it,  and  rather  hear 
a  thrush  sing  than  eat  it ;  finally,  because  I  never  dis- 
obeyed my  mother,  because  I  have  honored  all  women 
with  solemn  worship,  and  have  been  kind  even  to  the 
unthankful  and  evil ;  therefore,  the  hacks  of  English  art 
and  literature  wag  their  heads  at  me."  Ruskin  did  not 
permit  the  criticism  of  the  "  hacks  "  to  interfere  with  his 
reforms.  The  relieving  of  the  poor  remained  his  chief 
work,  until  broken  health  and  shattered  nerves  drove  him 


JOHN   RUSKIN 


419 


into  retirement   at  his  beautiful  home   of    Brantwood  on 
Coniston  Water,  in  the  Lake  District.     He  died  in  1900. 


RUSKIN'S    HOME    ON    CONISTON    WATER 


Art  Criticism.  —  Ruskin  is  noted  as  a  critic  of  art. 
His  Modern  Painters  (1843-1860)  and  his  two  works  on 
architecture,  TJie  Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture  (1849), 
and  The  Stones  of  Venice  (1851-1853),  are  his  chief  pro- 
ductions in  the  criticism  of  art.  The  greatest  of  these 
is  Modern  Painters,  which  deals  primarily  with  landscape 
painting.  In  a  masterly  survey  of  ancient  and  modern 
artists,  he  shows  the  great  superiority  of  the  landscapes 
of  the  modern  school  over  those  of  the  old  masters.  He 
compares  the  landscapes  of  different  artists  with  real 
mountains,  clouds,  water,  and  vegetation,  and  shows  how 
inaccurate  and  stereotyped  are  most  of  the  supposed 
copies  of  nature.  The  only  painter  who  filled  all  of 
Ruskin's  requirements  in  reproducing  nature  was  J.  M. 
W.  Turner.  In  a  lecture  on  painting  Ruskin  says :  — 


420  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

"  By  Shakespeare  humanity  was  unsealed  to  you ;  by  Verulam,  the 
principles  of  nature ;  and  by  Turner,  her  aspect.  All  these  were  sent 
to  unlock  one  of  the  gates  of  light,  and  to  unlock  it  for  the  first  time. 
.  .  .  none  before  Turner  had  lifted  the  veil  from  the  face  of  nature ; 
the  majesty  of  the  hills  and  forests  had  received  no  interpretation,  and 
the  clouds  passed  unrecorded  from  the  fall  of  the  heaven  which  they 
adorned,  and  of  the  earth  to  which  they  ministered." 

Before  the  revolution  in  landscape  painting  was  complete, 
a  noted  critic,  on  looking  at  a  canvas  where  the  trees 
were  green,  asked  in  surprise  :  "  But  where  is  your  brown 
tree  ? "  Leafy  trees  appeared  green  to  Ruskin  and  he 
insisted  that  they  should  be  painted  green,  no  matter 
what  color  the  conventional  school  declared  was  the 
proper  one. 

In  Modern  Painters,  Ruskin  enters  into  a  careful  study 
of  the  phenomena  of  nature.  He  describes,  for  example, 
the  form  and  arrangement  of  clouds  at  certain  elevations. 
He  explains  the  structure,  angles,  and  surfaces  of  various 
kinds  of  rocks.  He  sets  forth  in  a  minutely  scientific 
manner  the  manifold  aspects  of  water.  He  also  describes 
the  arrangement  of  boughs,  the  laws  of  foliage,  the  effects 
of  distance,  and  the  wonders  of  color. 

In  ridiculing  those  who  do  not  found  on  exact  observa- 
tion their  criticism  of  art,  he  shows  the  influence  of  the 
scientific  spirit  of  the  age.  In  the  first  part  of  Modern 
Painters,  he  says  :  — 

"Ask  the  connoisseur,  who  has  scampered  all  over  Europe,  the 
shape  of  the  leaf  of  an  elm,  and  the  chances  are  ninety  to  one  that  he 
cannot  tell  you  ;  and  yet  he  will  be  voluble  of  criticism  on  every  painted 
landscape  from  Dresden  to  Madrid,  and  pretend  to  tell  you  whether 
they  are  like  nature  or  not.  Ask  an  enthusiastic  chatterer  in  the  Sistine 
Chapel  how  many  ribs  he  has,  and  you  get  no  answer ;  but  it  is  odds 
that  you  do  not  get  out  of  the  door  without  his  informing  you  that  he 
considers  such  and  such  a  figure  badly  drawn  !  " 


JOHN   RUSKIN  421 

But  Modern  Painters  is  something  more  than  a  criticism 
of  art.  The  work  is  a  gospel  of  the  beautiful  in  nature 
as  the  expression  of  the  Divine  Mind.  Later  in  life 
Ruskin  himself  said  :  "  Modern  Painters  taught  the  claim 
of  all  lower  nature  on  the  hearts  of  men ;  of  the  rock, 
and  wave,  and  herb,  as  a  part  of  their  necessary  spirit 
life."  In  Modern  Painters  he  also  expounds  the  object 
of  his  sermons  on  art,  when  he  says  of  this  dull  world  : 
"  I  do  verily  believe  it  will  come,  finally,  to  understand 
that  God  paints  the  clouds  and  shapes  the  moss  fibers, 
that  men  may  be  happy  in  seeing  Him  at  His  work." 
Ruskin's  works  on  architecture  are  also  less  valuable  for 
technical  criticism  than  for  magnificent  descriptions  of 
beautiful  objects,  and  for  an  exposition  of  the  intellectual 
and  moral  significance  of  the  beautiful  in  architecture. 

Social  Questions.  —  By  turning  from  the  criticism  of  art 
to  consider  the  cause  of  humanity,  Ruskin  shows  the  influ- 
ence of  the  ethical  and  social  forces  of  the  age.  In  middle 
life  he  was  overwhelmed  with  the  amount  of  human  mis- 
ery and  he  determined  to  do  his  best  to  relieve  it.  He 
wrote :  — 

"  I  simply  cannot  paint,  nor  read,  nor  look  at  minerals,  nor  do  any- 
thing else  that  I  like,  and  the  very  light  of  the  morning  sky,  when  there 
is  any,  —  which  is  seldom,  nowadays,  near  London, — has  become 
hateful  to  me,  because  of  the  misery  that  I  know  of,  and  see  signs  of, 
where  I  know  it  not,  which  no  imagination  can  interpret  too  bitterly." * 

After  1860  his  main  efforts  with  both  pen  and  purse 
were  devoted  to  improving  the  condition  of  his  fellow-men. 
His  books  written  with  this  end  in  view  bear  strangely 
fanciful  titles,  such  as  Unto  this  Last  and  Munera  Pulveris, 
which  explain  political  economy,  Crown  of  Wild  Olive, 

1  Fors  Clavigera,  Letter  I. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT. 2"J 


422  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

which  treats  of  "Work,  Traffic,  and  War,"  and  Fors 
Clavigcra,  a  series  of  letters  to  workingmen.  Some  of 
his  economical  theories  and  plans  for  bettering  the  world 
are  as  fanciful  and  as  unrelated  to  what  is  possible  as  the 
titles  of  these  works  are  to  their  contents. 

These  works  deserve  attention,  not  because  of  the  ex- 
cellence of  their  working  theories  of  social  regeneration, 
but  because  Ruskin  here  voices  grand  ethical  truths  of 
sufficient  power  to  play  a  part  in  placing  humanity  on  a 
higher  spiritual  plane. 

General  Characteristics.  —  As  the  high  priest  of  beauty, 
Ruskin  occupies  a  secure  place  in  prose  literature. 
Many  have  testified  that  their  power  to  perceive  new 
beauties  in  cloud  and  mist,  meadow  and  stream,  waterfall 
and  mountain,  tree  and  flower,  has  been  tripled  through 
the  influence  of  his  teaching.  The  spirit  of  the  age  is 
shown  in  the  fact  that  Ruskin  achieves  this  result  less 
by  a  direct  appeal  to  feeling,  after  the  manner  of  the 
poets,  than  by  teaching  us  to  observe  more  closely  and 
to  discover  the  beautiful  for  ourselves  through  the  exer- 
cise of  our  perceptive  and  reasoning  powers  on  the  world 
around  us.  He  once  said  :  "  All  my  work  is  to  help  those 
who  have  eyes  and  see  not."  The  aesthetic  movement  of 
the  last  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  owes  more  to 
Ruskin  than  to  any  other  single  man. 

In  the  second  place,  Ruskin  is  a  great  ethical  teacher, 
in  his  works  on  art  as  well  as  in  those  on  social  ameliora- 
tion. He  is  not  the  apostle  of  merely  sensuous  beauty, 
but  rather  of  that  beauty  which  ennobles  the  spiritual  life 
and  ministers  to  the  highest  needs  of  the  soul.  His  very 
conception  of  beauty  is  founded  on  a  high  ethical  stand- 
ard. Like  Carlyle  he  opposed  sordid  materialism.  Un- 
like Carlyle,  Ruskin's  social  philosophy  led  to  his  following 


JOHN  RUSKIN  423 

the  example  of  the  Good  Samaritan  in  the  actual  walks  of 
life.  His  utterances  may  sometimes  be  dogmatic  and  self- 
contradictory,  and  his  economic  theories,  absurd;  but  his 
noble  ethical  teachings  overarch  all,  like  a  rainbow  prom- 
ising a  new  covenant  of  good  will  to  earth. 

Ruskin's  best  prose  is  written  in  a  descriptive,  ornate, 
almost  poetic  style.  He  is  remarkable  for  his  power  of 
word  painting.  The  following  description  of  the  Rhone 
deserves  to  be  ranked  with  a  fine  oil  painting :  — 

"  There  were  pieces  of  wave  that  danced  all  day  as  if  Perdita  were 
looking  on  to  learn ;  there  were  little  streams  that  skipped  like  lambs 
and  leaped  like  chamois  ;  there  were  pools  that  shook  the  sunshine  all 
through  them,  and  were  rippled  in  layers  of  overlaid  ripples,  like  crystal 
sand ;  there  were  currents  that  twisted  the  light  into  golden  braids, 
and  inlaid  the  threads  with  turquoise  enamel ;  there  were  strips  of 
stream  that  had  certainly  above  the  lake  been  mill  streams,  and  were 
busily  looking  for  mills  to  turn  again." l 

Word  painting  naturally  lends  itself  to  a  descriptive  style, 
for  the  writer  desires  to  aid  the  reader  in  the  realization  of 
what  is  described.  By  employing  language  as  varied  as  a 
painter's  pigments,  Ruskin  enables  us  to  realize  the  color 
of  the  Rhone  with  its 

"...  ever-answering  glow  of  unearthly  aquamarine,  ultra-marine, 
violet  blue,  gentian  blue,  peacock  blue,  river-of-paradise  blue,  glow  of  a 
painted  window  melted  in  the  sun,  and  the  witch  of  the  Alps  flinging 
the  spun  tresses  of  it  forever  from  her  snow."  2 

In  breadth  of  sympathetic  observation,  joined  to  rare 
ability  for  describing  the  beauties  of  nature,  of  painting, 
and  of  architecture  with  something  of  the  power  usually 
possessed  by  poets  alone,  Ruskin  is  surpassed  by  no  other 
English  prose  writer. 

l  Prceterita,  Vol.  II.,  Chap.  V.  2  Ibid. 


424 


THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD,   1822-1888 

Life.  —  Matthew  Arnold  was  born  in  1822,  at  Laleham, 
Middlesex.  His  father,  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold,  was  the  emi- 
nent head  master  of  Rugby  School,  and  the  author  of 
History  of  Rome,  Lectures  on  Modern  History,  and  Sermons. 
Under  the  guidance  of  such  a  father,  Matthew  Arnold  en- 
joyed unusual  educational  advantages.  In  1837  ne  entered 
Rugby,  and  from  there  he  went  to  Baliol  College,  Oxford. 
He  was  so  ambitious  and  studious  that  he  won  two  prizes 
at  Oxford,  graduated  with  honors,  and,  a  year  later,  was 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD 


425 


elected    fellow    of    Oriel   College.      Arnold's   name,    like 
Thomas  Gray's,  is  associated  with  university  life. 

From  1847  to  1851,  Arnold  was  private  secretary  to 
Lord  Lansdowne.  In  1851  he  married  the  daughter  of 
Justice  Wightman.  After  relinquishing  his  secretaryship, 
Arnold  accepted  a  position  which  took  him  again  into  ed- 
ucational fields.  He  was  made  lay  inspector  of  schools, 
a  position  which  he  held  to  within  two  years  of  his  death. 
This  office  called  for  much  study  in  methods  of  education, 
and  he  visited  the  continent  three  times  to  investigate  the 
systems  in  use  there.  In  addition,  he  held  the  chair  of 
poetry  at  Ox- 
ford for  ten 
years,  between 

1857  and  l867- 
One    of     the 
most  scholarly 
courses  of  lec- 
tures   that    he 
delivered  there 
was  On  Trans- 
lating  Homer. 
From  this  time 
until  his  death,  in 
1888,  he  was  a  dis- 
tinguished figure  in 
English  educational  and  literary  circles. 

Poetical  Works.  —  Matthew  Arnold's  poetry  belongs  to 
the  middle  of  the  century,  that  season  of  doubt,  perplexity, 
and  unrest,  when  the  strife  between  the  church  and 
science  was  bitterest  and  each  threatened  to  overthrow  the 
other.  In  his  home,  Arnold  was  taught  a  devout  faith  in 
revealed  religion,  and  at  college  he  was  thrown  upon  a 


MATTHEW    ARNOLD'S    GRAVE    IN    LALEHAM 
CHURCHYARD 


426  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

world  of  inquiring  doubt.  Both  influences  were  strong. 
His  feelings  yearned  after  the  early  faith,  and  his  intellect 
sternly  demanded  scientific  proof  and  explanation.  He 
was,  therefore,  torn  by  a  conflict  between  his  emotions  and 
reason,  and  he  was  thus  eminently  fitted  to  be  the  poetic 
exponent  of  what  he  calls 

"...  this  strange  disease  of  modern  life, 
With  its  sick  hurry,  its  divided  aims, 
Its  heads  o'ertaxed,  its  palsied  hearts." 1 

Arnold  felt  that  there  were  too  much  hurry  and  excite- 
ment in  the  age.  In  the  midst  of  opposing  factions, 
theories,  and  beliefs,  he  cries  out  for  rest  and  peace.  We 
rush  from  shadow  to  shadow,  — 

"  And  never  once  possess  our  soul 
Before  we  die."2 

Again,  in  the  Stanzas  in  Memory  of  the  Author  of  "Ober- 
mann"  he  voices  the  unrest  of  the  age  :  — 

"What  shelter  to  grow  ripe  is  ours? 
What  leisure  to  grow  wise  ? 
Like  children  bathing  on  the  shore, 
Buried  a  wave  beneath, 
The  second  wave  succeeds,  before 
We  have  had  time  to  breathe." 

But  Arnold  is  not  the  seer  to  tell  us  how  to  enter  the 
vale  of  rest,  how  to  answer  the  voice  of  doubt.  He 
passes  through  life  a  lonely  figure,  — 

"Wandering  between  two  worlds,  one  dead, 
The  other  powerless  to  be  born."  8 

The  only  creed  that  he  offers  humanity  is  one  born  of  the 
scientific  temper,  a  creed  of  stoical  endurance  and  un- 

1  The  Scholar-Gypsy.  *A  Southern  Night. 

8  The  Grande  Chartreuse. 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD  427 

swetving  allegiance  to  the  voice  of  duty.  While  these 
might  support  his  own  lofty  spirit,  they  are  little  better 
than  stones  to  a  people  crying  for  the  bread  of  life. 
Arnold  himself  was  far  from  satisfied,  but  his  cool  reason 
refused  him  the  solace  of  an  unquestioning  faith. 

Arnold  has  been  called  "  the  poet  of  the  Universities," 
because  of  the  reflective,  scholarly  thought  in  his  verse. 
It  breathes  the  atmosphere  of  books  and  the  study.  Such 
poetry  cannot  appeal  to  the  masses.  It  is  for  the 
thinker. 

The  style  of  verse  which  lends  itself  best  to  Arnold's 
genius  is  the  elegiac  lyric.  The  Scholar-Gypsy  and  its 
companion  piece  Thyrsis,  Memorial  Verses,  Stanzas  from 
the  Grande  Chartreuse,  and  Stanzas  in  Memory  of  the 
AutJior  of  "Obermann"  are  some  of  his  best  elegies. 

Sohrab  and  Rustum  and  Balder  Dead  are  Arnold's 
finest  narrative  poems.  They  are  stately,  dignified  re- 
citals of  the  deeds  of  heroes  and  gods.  The  series  of 
poems  entitled  Switzerland  and  Dover  Beach  are  among 
Arnold's  most  beautiful  lyrics.  A  fine  description  of  the 
surf  is  contained  in  the  last-named  poem  :  — 

"Listen  !  you  hear  the  grating  roar 
Of  pebbles  which  the  waves  draw  back,  and  fling, 
At  their  return,  up  the  high  strand, 
Begin,  and  cease,  and  then  again  begin, 
With  tremulous  cadence  slow,  and  bring 
The  eternal  note  of  sadness  in." 

Neither  the  movement  of  the  narrative  nor  the  lightness 
of  the  lyric  is  wholly  congenial  to  Arnold's  introspective 
melancholy  muse. 

Prose  Works.  —  Although  Arnold's  first  works  were  in 
poetry,  he  won  recognition  as  a  prose  writer  before  he 
widely  known  as  a  poet.     His  works  in  prose  com- 


428  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

prise  such  subjects  as  literary  criticism,  education,  the- 
ology, and  social  ethics.  As  a  critic  of  literature,  he 
surpasses  all  his  great  contemporaries.  Neither  Macau- 
lay  nor  Carlyle  possessed  the  critical  acumen,  the  taste, 
and  the  cultivated  judgment  of  literary  works,  in  such 
fullness  as  Matthew  Arnold." 

His  greatest  contributions  to  critical  literature  are 
the  various  magazine  articles  which  were  collected  in  the 
two  volumes  entitled  Essays  in  Criticism  (1865-1888). 
Arnold  displays  great  breadth  of  culture  and  fairness  of 
mind  in  these  essays.  He  rises  superior  to  the  narrow 
provincialism  and  racial  prejudices  which  he  depre- 
cates in  other  criticisms  of  literature,  and  gives  the  same 
sympathetic  consideration  to  the  German  Heine  and  the 
Frenchman  Joubert  as  to  Wordsworth.  Arnold  further 
insists  that  Frenchmen  should  study  English  literature  for 
its  serious  ethical  spirit,  and  that  Englishmen  would  be 
benefited  by  a  study  of  the  lightness,  precision,  and 
polished  form  of  French  literature. 

Arnold's  object  in  all  his  criticisms  is  to  discover  the 
best  in  both  prose  and  poetry,  and  his  method  of  attaining 
this  object  is  another  illustration  of  his  scholarship  and 
mental  reach.  He  says  in  his  Introduction  to  Ward's 
English  Poets :  — 

"  Indeed,  there  can  be  no  more  useful  help  for  discovering  what 
poetry  belongs  to  the  class  of  the  truly  excellent,  and  can  therefore  do 
us  most  good,  than  to  have  always  in  one's  mind  lines  and  expressions 
of  the  great  masters,  and  to  apply  them  as  a  touchstone  to  other  poetry." 

When  Arnold  seeks  to  determine  an  author's  true  place 
in  literature,  his  keen  critical  eye  seems  to  see  at  a 
glance  all  the  world's  great  writers,  and  to  compare  them 
with  the  man  under  discussion.  In  order  to  ascertain 
Wordsworth's  literary  stature,  for  example,  his  height  is 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD  429 

measured  by  that  of  Homer,  of  Dante,  of   Shakespeare, 
and  of  Milton. 

Another  essential  quality  of  the  critical  mind  which 
Arnold  possessed,  is  "sweet  reasonableness."  His  judg- 
ments of  men  are  marked  by  a  moderation  of  tone.  His 
strong  predilections  are  sometimes  shown,  but  they  are 
more  often  restrained  by  a  clear,  honest  intellect.  Arnold's, 
calm,  measured  criticisms  are  not  marred  by  such  stout 
partisanship  as  Macaulay  shows  for  the  Whigs,  by  the  hero 
worship  which  Carlyle  expresses,  or  by  the  exaggerated 
praise  and  blame  which  Ruskin  sometimes  bestows.  On 
the  other  hand,  Arnold  loses  what  these  men  gain,  for  while 
his  intellect  is  less  biased  than  theirs,  it  is  also  less  colored 
and  warmed  by  the  glow  of  feeling. 

The  analytical  quality  of  Arnold's  mind  shows  the  spirit 
of  the  age.  His  subjects  are  minutely  classified  and  de- 
fined. Facts  seem  to  divide  naturally  into  brigades,  regi- 
ments, and  battalions  of  marching  order.  His  literary 
criticisms  note  subtleties  of  style,  delicate  shadings  in  ex- 
pression, and  many  technical  excellences  and  errors  that 
Carlyle  would  have  passed  over  unheeded.  In  addition  to 
the  Essays  in  Criticism,  the  other  works  of  Arnold  which 
possess  his  fine  critical  qualities  in  highest  degree  are  On 
Translating  Homer  (1861)  and  The  Study  of  Celtic  Litera- 
ture (\^\ 

General  Characteristics.  —  The  impression  which  Arnold 
has  left  upon  literature  is  mainly  that  of  a  keen,  brilliant 
intellect.  In  his  poetry  there  is  more  emotion  than  in  his 
prose,  but  even  in  his  poetry  there  is  no  passion  or  fire. 
The  sadness,  the  loneliness,-  the  unrest  of  life,  and  the 
irreconcilable  conflict  between  faith  and  doubt  are  most 
often  the  subjects  of  his  verse.  His  range  is  narrow,  but 
within  it  he  attains  a  pure,  noble  beauty.  His  introspec- 


430  THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

tive,  analytical  poetry  is  distinguished  by  a  "majesty  of 
grief,"  depth  of  thought,  calm,  classic  repose,  and  a  dig- 
nified simplicity. 

In  prose,  Arnold  attains  highest  rank  as  a  critic  of  lit- 
erature. His  culture,  the  breadth  of  his  literary  sympa- 
thies, his  scientific  analyses,  and  his  lucid  literary  style, 
place  his  critical  works  second  to  none  in  the  language. 
He  has  a  light,  rather  fanciful,  humor,  which  gives  snap 
and  spice  to  his  style.  He  is  also  a  master  of  irony, 
which  is  galling  to  an  opponent.  He  himself  never  loses 
his  suavity  or  good  breeding.  Arnold's  prose  style  is  as 
far  removed  from  Carlyle's  as  the  calm  simplicity  of  the 
Greeks  is  from  the  powerful  passion  of  the  Viking.  The 
ornament  and  poetic  richness  of  Ruskin's  style  are  also 
missing  in  Arnold's.  His  style  has  a  classic  purity  and 
refinement.  He  has  a  terseness,  a  crystalline  clearness, 
and  a  precision  which  have  been  excelled  in  the  works  of 
few  even  of  the  greatest  masters  of  English  prose. 

CHARLES   DICKENS,   1812-1870. 

Life.  —  Out  of  the  vast  host  of  Victorian  novelists,  the 
three  greatest,  Dickens,  Thackeray,  and  George  Eliot, 
will  be  selected  for  special  study.  The  first  of  these  to 
achieve  fame  was  Charles  Dickens.  This  man,  who  was 
to  become  a  great  portrayer  of  child  life,  had  a  sad,  pain- 
ful childhood.  He  was  born  in  1812  at  Landport,  a  dis- 
trict of  the  city  of  Portsmouth,  Hampshire,  where  his 
father  was  a  clerk  in  the  Navy  Pay  Office.  John  Dick- 
ens, the  prototype  of  Mr.  Micawber,  was  a  kind,  well- 
intentioned  man,  who  knew  far  better  how  to  harangue 
his  large  household  of  children  than  to  supply  it  with 
the  necessities  of  life.  He  moved  from  place  to  place, 


CHARLES   DICKENS 


431 


sinking   deeper   into    poverty    and    landing   finally   in    a 
debtors'  prison. 

The  dreams  of  a  fine  education  and  a  brilliant  career 
which  the  future  novelist  had  fondly  cherished  in  his 
precocious  little  brain,  had  to  be  abandoned.  At  the  age 
of  eleven  the  delicate  child  was  called  upon  to  do  his  part 
toward  maintaining  the  family.  He  was  engaged  at  six- 
pence a  week,  to  paste  labels  on  blacking  bottles.  He 


432  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

was  poorly  clothed,  ill  fed,  forced  to  live  in  the  cheapest 
place  to  be  found,  and  to  associate  with  the  roughest  kind 
of  companions.  This  experience  was  so  bitter  and  galling 
to  the  sensitive  boy,  that  years  after,  when  he  was  a 
successful,  happy  man,  he  could  not  look  back  upon  it 
without  tears  in  his  eyes.  Owing  to  a  rupture  between 
his  employer  and  the  elder  Mr.  Dickens,  Charles  was 
removed  from  this  place  and  sent  to  school.  At  fifteen, 
however,  he  had  to  seek  work  again.  This  time  he  was 
employed  in  an  attorney's  office  at  Gray's  Inn. 

It  was  impossible,  of  course,  for  this  ambitious  boy  to 
realize  that  he  was  receiving  an  education  in  the  dirty 
streets,  the  warehouses,  the  tenements,  and  the  prisons. 
But,  for  his  peculiar  bent  of  mind,  these  furnished  far 
richer  stores  of  learning  than  either  school  or  college 
could  have  given.  He  had  marvelous  powers  of  obser- 
vation. He  noted  everything,  from  the  saucy  street  waif 
to  the  sorrowful  prison  child,  from  the  poor  little  drudge 
to  the  brutal  schoolmaster,  and  transplanted  them  from 
life  to  fiction,  in  such  characters  as  Sam  Weljer,  Little 
Dorrit,  the  Marchioness,  Mr.  Squeers,  and  a  hundred 
others. 

While  in  the  attorney's  office,  Dickens  began  to  study 
shorthand,  in  order  to  become  a  reporter.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  his  success.  His  reports  were  accurate  and 
racy,  even  though  they  happened  to  be  written  in  the 
pouring  rain,  in  a  shaking  stage  coach,  or  by  the  light  of  a 
lantern.  They  were  also  promptly  handed  in  at  the  office, 
despite  the  fact  that  the  stages  sometimes  broke  down  and 
left  their  passengers  to  plod  on  foot  through  the  miry 
roads  leading  into  London.  These  reports  and  newspaper 
articles  soon  attracted  attention,  and  Dickens  received  an 
offer  for  a  series  of  humorous  sketches,  which  grew  into 


CHARLES   DICKENS 


433 


the  famous  Pickwick  Papers,  and  earned  ,£20,000  for  the 
astonished  publishers.  He  was  able  to  make  his  own 
terms  for  his  future  novels.  Fame  came  to  him  almost 
at  a  bound.  He  was  loved  and  toasted  in  England  and 
America  before  he  reached  the  age  of  thirty.  When,  late 
in  life,  he  made  lecture  tours  through  his  own  country, 
Scotland,  or  America,  they  were  like  triumphal  marches. 
In  his  prime  Dickens  was  an  energetic,  high-spirited, 
fun-loving  man.  He  made  a  charming  host,  and  was 


-S* 


DICKENS'S    HOME,    GAD'S    HILL 


never  happier  than  when  engineering  theatrical  enter- 
tainments at  his  delightful  home,  Gad's  Hill.  He  was 
esteemed  by  all  the  literary  men  of  London,  and  idolized 
by  his  children  and  friends.  His  strong  personality  was 
communicated  to  his  audiences  and  his  readers,  so  that 
his  death  in  1870  was  felt  as  a  personal  loss  throughout 
the  English-speaking  world. 


434  THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

Works.  —  Pickivick  Papers  (1836-1837),  Dickens's  first 
long  story,  is  one  of  his  best.  Mr.  Pickwick,  with  his 
genial  nature,  simple  philosophy,  and  droll  adventures, 
and  Sam  Weller,  with  his  ready  wit,  his  acute  observa- 
tions, and  almost  limitless  resources,  are  amusing  from 
start  to  finish.  The  book  is  brimful  of  its  author's  high 
spirits.  It  has  no  closely  knit  plot,  only  a  succession 
of  comical  incidents,  but  these  possess  such  a  human 
touch  and  such  kindly,  good-natured  fun,  that  they  smooth 
out  the  reader's  wrinkles  and  tend  to  keep  his  heart 
young. 

Oliver  JW.r/ (1837-1838)  is  a  powerful  story,  differing 
widely  from  Pickwick  Papers.  While  the  earlier  work  is 
delightful  chiefly  for  its  humor,  Oliver  Tzvist  is  strong  in 
its  pictures  of  passion  and  crime.  Bill  Sykes  the  mur- 
derer, Fagan  the  Jew,  who  teaches  the  boys  deftness  of 
hand  in  stealing,  and  poor  Nancy,  are  drawn  with  such 
realistic  power  that  they  seem  to  be  still  actually  living 
in  some  of  the  London  alleys  which  Dickens  frequently 
visited.  There  are  some  improbable  features  about  the 
plot  and  some  over-wrought  sentimental  scenes  in  the 
story,  but  the  novel  keeps  the  reader  keenly  interested, 
and  it  contains  passages  which  make  a  powerful  appeal  to 
human  emotion. 

With  the  prodigality  of  a  fertile  genius,  Dickens  pre- 
sented his  expectant  and  enthusiastic  public  with  a  new 
novel  on  an  average  of  once  a  year  for  fourteen  years,  and, 
even  after  that,  his  productivity  did  not  fall  off  materially. 
The  best  and  most  representative  of  these  works  are 
Nicholas  Nickleby  (1838-1839),  Barnaby  Rndge  (1841), 
Martin  Chuszlewit  (1843-1844),  Doinbcy  and  Sou  (1846- 
1848),  David  Coppcrfield  (1849-1850),  and  A  Tale  of  Tivo 
Cities  (1859). 


CHARLES   DICKENS  435 

Of  these  David  Copperfield  is  the  masterpiece.  David's 
early  home,  Miss  Trotwood's  rustic  abode,  and  the  old 
fishing  village  of  Yarmouth,  are  never-to-be-forgotten 
scenes.  The  characters  in  the  book  are  among  the  most 
human  in  the  novels  of  Dickens.  Chief  among  this  in- 
teresting company  are  loyal,  constant  Mr.  Peggotty,  dear 
Aunt  Betsey  Trotwood,  the  inimitable  Mr.  Micawber,  and, 
above  all,  little  David,  into  whom  his  creator  breathed  the 
breath  of  his  own  childish  life.  Dickens  always  seemed  to 
understand  children.  His  child  characters  are  natural  and 
true.  Most  of  them  are  sad,  for  no  one  realized  more  than 
Dickens  the  universal  repression  of  childish  impulses,  and 
the  frightful  suffering  it  entailed.  He  laid  bare  to  many 
readers  for  the  first  time  the  sorrows,  fears,  and  struggles 
of  the  child  world.  Fuller  knowledge  of  this  world  devel- 
oped broader  sympathy  with  it,  and  his  writings  helped  to 
secure  for  children  better  treatment  in  the  school  and  the 
workshop.  With  boys  and  girls,  he  is  the  most  popular  of 
the  great  Victorian  novelists.  Thackeray's  children  once 
na'i'vely  asked  him  why  he  did  not  write  like  Dickens. 
Thackeray  was  sufficiently  generous  to  recommend  for 
children  the  unsullied  pages  of  Dickens. 

General  Characteristics.  —  Charles  Dickens  and  Walter 
Scott  are  probably  the  best-loved  authors  in  England. 
Their  works  offer  sound  and  healthy  entertainment  to  a 
people  almost  too  heavily  burdened  with  problems  of  exist- 
ence. Dickens  widens  the  sympathies  of  people  by  taking 
the  gay  world  with  him  into  the  slums  of  London, 'and  ex- 
hibiting the  misery  and  despair  of  those  vice-haunted  dis- 
tricts. He  is  a  powerful  portrayer  of  the  poor  and  degraded 
classes  of  society.  In  this  way,  he  is  also  an  ethical  force. 
While  he  points  out,  in  a  general  way,  the  sufferings  of  pov- 
erty and  crime,  he  does  not,  like  George  Eliot,  probe  deeply 


436  THE   VICTORIAN  AGE 

into  the  social  evils  and  complex  problems  of  modern  life. 
His  social  creed  is  thus  formulated  by  Dowden  :  "  Banish 
from  earth  some  few  monsters  of  selfishness,  malignity, 
and  hypocrisy,  set  to  rights  a  few  obvious  imperfections 
in  the  machinery  of  society,  inspire  all  men  with  a  cheery 
benevolence,  and  everything  will  go  well  with  this  excel- 
lent world  of  ours." 

All  classes  of  society  are  ready  to  join  with  Dickens  in 
his  hearty  laughter.  His  infectious  humor  is  the  most 
remarkable  quality  of  his  works,  but  it  is  not  of  a  kind 
to  be  quoted  in  short  passages.  The  whole  scene  of  Mr. 
Pickwick's  trial  is  pervaded  by  irresistible  mirth,  and 
nearly  all  the  caricatures  are  conceived  in  the  light  of 
a  joke.  Little  David  Copperfield,  even  in  his  saddest 
moments,  sees  things  in  a  distorted  childish  way,  very 
quaint  and  funny.  This  quality  of  humor  is  due  to  the 
peculiar,  exuberant,  and  fantastic  imagination  of  Dickens. 
He  deals  with  real  facts  of  life,  but,  like  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land, he  sees  them  upside  down  and  inside  out. 

Dickens  is  a  master  of  caricature.  The  heroes  and 
heroines  of  his  books  are  usually  colorless  and  lifeless,  but 
certain  characters,  possessing  some  exaggerated  manner- 
ism, live  forever  in  the  memory.  No  one  forgets  the 
squalid  gentility  and  Vapid  eloquence  of  the  good-hearted 
Micawber,  or  the  energetic  figure  of  Miss  Betsey  Trot- 
wood,  with  her  cry  of  "Janet!  Donkeys!  "  or  Uriah  Heep 
with  the  long  fingers  and  clammy  hands,  or  Sarah  Gamp 
with  her  visionary  confidant,  or  dozens  of  other  charac- 
ters with  certain  eccentricities  of  dress,  speech,  walk,  or 
mind. 

Closely  allied  to  the  fund  of  humor  in  Dickens  is  the 
feeling  for  the  pathetic.  -The  Christmas  Carol  contains  a 
most  exquisite  blending  of  humor  and  pathos.  David 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY  437 

Copperfield's  childish  griefs  and  little  Paul  Dombey's 
death  are  related  with  a  touching  pathos.  But  Dickens's 
efforts  to  be  pathetic  sometimes  lead  to  a  display  of  weak 
sentimentalism.  We  feel  that  he  is  laboring  to  be  im- 
pressive in  describing  the  death  of  little  Nell  in  The  Old 
Curiosity  Shop,  and  that  he  might  have  added  to  the  pathos 
of  the  scene,  had  he  rested  content  with  a  few  simple  touches 
of  nature.  The  death  of  Dora  in  David  Copperfield  is  almost 
ludicrous,  coming  as  it  does  in  conjunction  with  that  of  her 
lap-dog. 

Dickens  is  not  a  master  in  the  artistic  construction  of  his 
plots.  The  majority  of  his  readers  do  not,  however,  notice 
this  failing  because  he  keeps  them  in  such  a  delightful  state 
of  interest  and  suspense  by  the  sprightliness  with  which 
he  tells  a  story. 

Dickens  was  a  very  rapid  writer,  and  his  English  is  con- 
sequently often  careless  in  structure  and  in  grammar.  He 
was  not  a  man  of  books,  and  so  he  never  acquired  that 
half-unconscious  knowledge  of  fine  phrasing  which  comes 
to  the  careful  student  of  literature.  The  style  of  Dickens 
is  clear  and  graphic,  but  it  can  lay  slight  claims  to  elegance 
or  literarv  finish. 


WILLIAM    MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY,   1811-1863 

Life.  — Though  nearly  a  year  older  than  Dickens,  Thacke- 
ray made  his  way  to  popularity  much  more  slowly.  These 
two  men,  who  became  friends  and  generous  rivals,  were  very 
different  in  character  and  disposition.  Instead  of  possess- 
ing the  self-confidence,  energy,  and  industry  which  brought 
Dickens  fame  in  his  twenties,  Thackeray  had  to  contend 
with  a  somewhat  shy  and  vacillating  temperament,  extreme 
modesty,  and  with  a  constitutional  aversion  to  work. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  28 


THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 


Born  in  Calcutta  in  1811,  he  was  sent  to  England  to 
be  educated.  He  passed  through  Charter  House  and  went 
one  year  to  Cambridge.  He  was  remembered  by  his  school 
friends  for  his  skill  in  caricature  sketching.  He  hoped  to 
make  painting  a  profession  and  went  to  Paris  to  study,  but 
he  never  attained  correctness  in  drawing,  and  when  he 
offered  to  illustrate  the  works  of  Dickens,  the  offer  was 
declined.  Thackeray  certainly  added  to  the  charm  of  his 
own  writings  by  his  droll  and  delightful  illustrations. 

When  Thackeray  came  of  age  in  1832,  he  inherited  a 


WILLIAM    MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY 


439 


small  fortune,  which  he  soon  lost  in  an  Indian  bank  and 
in  newspaper  investments.  He  was  then  forced  to  over- 
come his  idle,  procrastinating  habits.  He  became  a  liter- 
ary hack,  and  contributed  humorous  articles  to  such 
magazines  as  Fraser 
2j\&  Punch.  While 
his  pen  was  causing 
mirth  and  laughter 
in  England,  his 
heart  was  torn  by 
suffering.  His  wife, 
whom  he  had  mar- 
ried in  183  7,  became 
insane.  He  nursed 
her  patiently  with 
the  vain  hope  that 
she  could  recover, 
but  he  finally  aban- 
doned hope  and  put 
her  in  the  care  of  a 
conscientious  atten- 
dant. His  home 
was  consequently 
lonely,  and  the  club 
was  his  only  re- 
course. Here,  his 
broad  shoulders 
and  kindly  face 
were  always  greeted  with  pleasure,  for  his  affable  man- 
ners and  his  sparkling  humor,  which  concealed  an  aching 
heart,  made  him  a  charming  companion. 

It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  the  later  years  of  his  life  were 
happier.      They   were   cheered   by  the    presence    of    his 


From  an  unpublished  original. 


ONE    OF    THACKERAY'S    DRAWINGS 


440  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

daughters,  and  were  free  from  financial  worries.  He  had 
the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that,  through  the  sales  of  his 
books  and  the  returns  from  his  lectures,  he  had  recovered 
his  lost  fortune. 

Novels. —  Vanity  Fair{  1847- 1848)  is  Thackeray's  mas- 
terpiece. For  the  lifelikeness  of  its  characters,  it  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  creations  in  fiction.  Thackeray  called 
this  work  "A  Novel  without  a  Hero."  He  might  have 
added  "  and  without  a  heroine,"  for  neither  clever  Becky 
Sharp  nor  beautiful  Amelia  Sedley  satisfies  the  require- 
ments for  a  heroine.  No  perfect  characters  appear  in  the 
book,  but  it  is  enlivened  with  an  abundance  of  genuine  hu- 
man nature.  Few  people  go  through  life  without  meeting 
a  George  Osborne,  a  Mrs.  Bute  Crawley,  or  a  Mrs.  Sedley. 
Even  a  penurious,  ridiculous,  old  Sir  Pitt  Crawley  is  some- 
times seen.  The  greatest  stroke  of  genius  in  the  book, 
however,  is  the  masterly  portrayal  of  the  artful,  scheming 
Becky  Sharp,  who  alternately  commands  respect  for  her 
shrewdness  and  repels  by  her  moral  depravity. 

In  Vanity  Fair  certain  classes  of  society  are  satirized. 
Their  intrigues,  frivolities,  and  caprices  are  mercilessly 
dealt  with.  Thackeray  probes  almost  every  weakness, 
vanity,  and  ambition  which  leads  humanity  to  strive  for  a 
place  in  society,  to  long  for  a  bow  from  a  lord,  and  to 
stint  in  private  in  order  to  shine  in  public.  He  uncovers 
the  great  social  farce  of  life,  which  is  acted  with  such 
solemn  gravity  by  the  snobs,  the  hypocrites,  and  the  other 
superficial  dramatis  persona.  Amid  these  satirized  frivoli- 
ties there  appear  occasional  touches  of  true  pathos  and 
deep  human  tragedy,  which  are  strangely  effective  in  their 
unsympathetic  surroundings. 

Thackeray  gives  in  Henry  Esmond  (1852)  an  enduring 
picture  of  high  life  in  the  eighteenth  century.  This  work 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY  441 

is  one  of  the  great  historical  novels  in  our  language.  The 
time  of  Queen  Anne  is  reconstructed  with  remarkable 
skill.  The  social  etiquette,  the  ideals  of  honor,  the  life 
and  spirit  of  that  bygone  day,  reappear  with  a  powerful 
vividness.  Thackeray  even  went  so  far  as  to  disguise  his 
own  natural,  graceful  style,  and  to  imitate  eighteenth  cen- 
tury prose.  Henry  Esmond  is  a  dangerous  rival  of  Vanity 
Fair.  The  earlier  work  has  a  freshness  of  humor  and  a 
spontaneity  of  manner  which  are  not  so  apparent  in 
Henry  Esmond.  On  the  other  hand,  Esmond  has  a  supe- 
rior plot  and  possesses  a  true  hero. 

In  The  Neivcomes  (1854-1855),  Thackeray  exhibits  again 
his  incisive  power  of  delineating  character.  This  book 
would  continue  to  live  if  for  nothing  except  the  simple- 
hearted,  courtly  Colonel  Newcome.  Few  scenes  in  Eng- 
lish fiction  are  more  affecting  than  those  connected  with 
his  death.  The  accompanying  lines  will  show  what  a 
simple  pathos  Thackeray  could  command  :  — 

"At  the  usual  evening  hour  the  chapel  bell  began  to  toll,  and 
Thomas  Newcome's  hands  outside  the  bed  feebly  beat  time.  —  and  just 
as  the  last  bell  struck,  a  peculiar  sweet  smile  shone  over  his  face,  and 
he  lifted  up  his  head  a  little,  and  quickly  said,  'Adsiim]  —  and  fell  back. 
It  was  the  word  we  used  at  school  when  names  were  called;  and,  lo! 
he  whose  heart  was  as  that  of  a  little  child  had  answered  to  his  name, 
and  stood  in  the  presence  of  his  Maker!" 

The  History  of  Pendennis  (1849)  and  TJie  Virginians 
(1857-1859)  are  both  popular  novels  and  take  rank  infe- 
rior only  to  the  author's  three  greatest  works.  The  Vir- 
ginians is  a  sequel  to  Esmond,  and  carries  the  Castlewood 
family  through  adventures  in  the  New  World. 

Essays.  —  Thackeray  will  live  in  English  literature  as 
an  essayist  as  well  as  a  novelist.  TJie  English  Humorists  of 
the  Eighteenth  Century  (1853)  and  TJie  Four  Georges 


442  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

are  among  the  most  delightful  essays  of  the  age.  The 
author  of  Henry  Esmond  knew  Swift,  Addison,  Fielding, 
and  Smollett  almost  as  one  knows  the  mental  peculiarities 
of  an  intimate  friend.  In  The  English  Humorists  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century,  Thackeray  writes  of  their  conversa- 
tions, foibles,  and  strong  points  of  character,  in  a  most 
easy  and  entertaining  way.  There  is  a  constant  charm 
about  his  manner,  which,  without  effort  or  display  of 
learning,  brings  the  authors  vividly  before  the  reader. 
In  addition  to  this  presentation  of  character,  the  essays 
contain  appreciative  literary  criticism.  The  essence  of  the 
humor  in  these  eighteenth  century  writers  is  distilled  in  its 
purest,  most  delicate  flavor,  by  this  nineteenth  century 
member  of  their  brotherhood. 

The  Four  Georges  deals  with  England's  crowned  heads 
in  a  satiric  vein,  which  caused  much  comment  among 
Thackeray's  contemporaries.  The  satire  is,  however, 
mild  and  subdued,  never  venomous.  For  example,  he 
says  in  the  essay  on  George  III.:  — 

"  King  George's  household  was  a  model  of  an  English  gentleman's 
household.  It  was  early ;  it  was  kindly ;  it  was  charitable ;  it  was 
frugal ;  it  was  orderly ;  it  must  have  been  stupid  to  a  degree  which  I 
shudder  now  to  contemplate.  No  wonder  all  the  princes  ran  away  from 
the  lap  of  that  dreary  domestic  virtue.  It  always  rose,  rode,  dined,  at 
stated  intervals.  Day  after  day  was  the  same.  At  the  same  hour  at 
night  the  King  kissed  his  daughters1  jolly  cheeks ;  the  Princesses  kissed 
their  mother's  hand ;  and  Madame  Thielke  brought  the  royal  nightcap." 

General  Characteristics.  —  Dickens  and  Thackeray  have 
left  graphic  pictures  of  a  large  portion  of  contemporary 
London  life.  Dickens  presents  in  striking  caricatures  the 
vagabonds,  the  outcasts,  and  the  merchants,  and  Thack- 
eray portrays  the  suave,  polite  leisure  class  and  its  de- 
pendents. 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY  443 

Thackeray  is  an  uncompromising  realist  and  a  satirist. 
He  insisted  upon  picturing  life  as  he  believed  that  it 
existed  in  London  society,  and,  to  his  satiric  eye,  that  life 
was  composed  chiefly  of  the  small  vanities,  the  little  pas- 
sions, and  the  petty  quarrels  of  commonplace  people, 
whose  main  objects  were  money  and  title.  He  could  con- 
ceive noble  men  and  women,  as  is  proved  by  Esmond, 
Lady  Castlewood,  and  Colonel  Newcome,  but  such  char- 
acters are  as  rare  in  Thackeray  as  he  believed  they  were 
in  real  life.  The  following  passage  upon  mankind's 
fickleness  is  a  good  specimen  of  his  satiric  vein  in  dealing 
with  human  weaknesses  :  — 

"  There  are  no  better  satires  than  letters.  Take  a  bundle  of  your 
dear  friend's  letters  of  ten  years  back  —  your  dear  friend  whom  you  hate 
now.  Look  at  a  pile  of  your  sister's  !  How  you  clung  to  each  other 
until  you  quarreled  about  the  twenty-pound  legacy  !  .  .  .  Vows,  love 
promises,  confidence,  gratitude,  — how  queerly  they  read  after  a  while ! 
.  .  .  The  best  ink  for  Vanity  Fair  use  would  be  one  that  faded  utterly 
in  a  couple  of  days,  and  left  the  paper  clean  and  blank,  so  that  you 
might  write  on  it  to  somebody  else." 

The  phases  of  life  which  he  describes  have  had  no 
more  subtle  interpreter.  He  does  not  label  his  characters 
with  external  marks,  but  enters  into  communion  with 
their  souls.  His  analytic  method  of  laying  bare  their 
motives  and  actions  is  strictly  modern.  His  great  master 
Fielding  would  have  been  baffled  by  such  a  complex  per- 
sonality as  Becky  Sharp.  Amid  the  throng  of  Thackeray's 
men  and  women,  there  are  but  few  who  are  not  genuine 
flesh  and  blood. 

The  art  of  describing  the  pathetic  is  unfailing  in  Thack- 
eray. He  never  jars  upon  the  most  sensitive  feelings 
nor  wearies  them  by  too  long  a  treatment.  With  a  few 
simple  but  powerful  expressions  he  succeeds  in  arousing 


444 


THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 


intense  emotions  of  pity  or  sorrow.  He  has  been  called 
a  cynic,  but  wrongly,  for  no  man  can  be  a  cynic  who 
shows  Thackeray's  tenderness  in  the  treatment  of  pathos. 
Thackeray  is  master  of  a  graceful,  simple  prose  style. 
In  its  ease  and  purity,  it  most  resembles  that  of  Swift, 
Addison,  or  Goldsmith.  Thackeray  writes  as  a  cultured, 
ideal,  old  gentleman  may  be  imagined  to  talk  to  the 
young  people,  while  he  sits  in  his  comfortable  armchair 
in  a  corner  by  the  fireplace..  The  charm  of  freshness, 
quaintness,  and  colloquial  familiarity  is  seldom  absent  from 
the  delightfully  natural  pages  of  Thackeray. 

GEORGE  ELIOT,   1819-1880 

Life.  —  Mary  Ann  Evans,  known  to  her  family  as  Mar- 
ian and  to  her  readers  as  George  Eliot,  was  born  in  1819, 
at  South  Farm,  in  Arbury,  Warwickshire,  about 'twenty-two 
miles  north  of  Stratford-on-Avon.  A  few  months  later, 


\Sto*15 

,•  :t « 


GEORGE    ELIOT'S     BIRTHPLACE 


GEORGE   ELIOT  445 

the  family  moved  to  a  spacious  ivy-covered  farmhouse  at 
Griff,  some  two  miles  east,  where  the  future  novelist  lived 
until  she  was  twenty-two. 

She  was  a  thoughtful,  precocious  child.  She  lived  largely 
within  herself,  passed  much  time  in  reverie,  and  pondered 
upon  deep  problems.  She  easily  outstripped  her  school- 
mates in  all  mental  accomplishments,  and,  from  the  first, 
gave  evidence  of  a  clear,  strong  intellect. 

The  death  of  her  mother  and  the  marriage  of  a  sister 
left  the  entire  care  of  the  house  and  dairy  to  Marian 
before  she  was  seventeen  years  old.  Her  labors  were 
quite  heavy  for  the  next  six  years.  At  the  end  of  that 
time,  she  and  her  father  moved  to  Foleshill,  near 
Coventry,  where  she  had  ample  leisure  to  pursue  her 
studies  and  music.  At  Foleshill,  she  came  under  the 
influence  of  free-thinking  friends  and  became  an  agnostic, 
which  she  remained  tnrough  the  rest  of  her  life.  This 
home  was  again  broken  up  in  1849  by  the  death  of  her 
father.  Through  the  advice  of  friends  she  sought  com- 
fort in  travel  on  the  continent. 

Upon  her  return,  she  settled  in  London  as  assistant 
editor  of  the  Westminster  Review,  By  this  time  she  had 
become  familiar  with  five  languages,  had  translated 
abstruse  metaphysical  books  from  the  German  into  Eng- 
lish, and  had  so  thoroughly  equipped  her  naturally  strong 
intellect  that  she  was  sought  after  in  London  by  such 
men  as  Herbert  Spencer  and  George  Henry  Lewes.  A 
deep  attachment  sprang  up  between  Mr.  Lewes  and  Miss 
Evans,  and  they  formed  an  alliance  which  lasted  until 
his  death. 

George  Eliot's  early  literary  labors  were  mainly  critical 
and  scientific,  being  governed  by  the  circle  in  which  she 
moved.  When  she  came  under  the  influence  of  Mr.  Lewes, 


446 


THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 


s~ 

she  was  induced  to  attempt  creative  work.  Her  novels, 
published  under  the  pen  name  of  George  Eliot,  quickly 
became  popular.  Despite  this  success,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  she  would  have  possessed  sufficient  self-reliance 
to  continue  her  work  without  Mr.  Lewes's  constant  en- 
couragement and  protecting  love,  which  shielded  her  from 
contact  with  publishers  and  from  a  knowledge  of  harsh 
criticisms. 

Their  companionship  was  so  congenial  that  her  friends 
were    astonished  when    she    formed    another   attachment 


GEORGE  ELIOT  447 

after  his  death  in  1878,  and  married  Mr.  Cross.  Her 
husband  said  that  her  affectionate  nature  required  some 
deep  love  to  which  to  cling.  She  had  never  been  very 
robust,  and,  during  her  later  years,  she  was  extremely 
frail.  She  died  in  1880. 

Works.  —  George  Eliot  was  fast  approaching  forty 
when  she  found  the  branch  of  literature  in  which  she 
was  to  achieve  fame.  Her  first  volume  of  stories,  Scenes 
of  Clerical  Life  (1858),  showed  decisively  that  she  was 
master  of  fiction  writing.  Three  novels  followed  rapidly, 
Adam  Bede  (1859),  The  Mill  on  the  Floss  (1860),  and 
Silas  Marner  (1861).  Her  mind  was  stored  with  mem- 
ories of  the  Midland  counties,  where  her  young  life  was 
spent,  and  these  four  books  present  with  a  powerful 
realism  this  rich  rural  district  and  its  quaint  inhabitants, 
all  of  whom  seem  flushed  with  the  warmth  of  real  life. 

Adam  Bede  is  the  freshest,  healthiest,  and  most  delight- 
ful of  her  books.  Aside  from  its  one  painful  interlude, 
this  story  leaves  upon  the  memory  a  charming  picture  of 
peace  and  contentment,  with  its  clearly  drawn  and  inter- 
esting characters,  its  ideal  dairy,  the  fertile  stretches  of 
meadow  lands,  the  squire's  birthday  party,  the  harvest 
supper,  and  the  sweet  Methodist  woman  preaching  on 
the  green. 

The  Mill  on  the  Floss  also  gives  a  fine  picture  of  village 
life.  This  novel  is  one  of  George  Eliot's  most  earnest 
productions.  She  exhibits  one  side  of  her  own  intense, 
brooding  girlhood,  in  the  passionate  heroine,  Maggie 
Tulliver.  There  is  in  this  tragic  story  a  wonderfully 
subtle  revelation  of  a  young  nature  which  is  morbid, 
ambitious,  quick  of  intellect,  and  strong  of  will,  and  which 
has  no  hand  firm  enough  to  serve  as  guide. 

Silas  Marner,  artistically  considered,  is  George  Eliot's 


448  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

masterpiece.  In  addition  to  the  ruddy  glow  of  life  in 
the  characters,  there  is  an  idyllic  beauty  about  the  pas- 
toral setting,  and  a  poetic,  half-mystic  charm  about  the 
weaver's  manner  of  connecting  his  gold  with  his  bright- 
haired  Eppie.  The  slight  plot  is  well  planned  and  rounded, 
and  the  narrative  is  remarkable  for  ease  and  simplicity. 

Romola  (1863)  is  a  much  bolder  flight.  It  is  an  attempt 
to  present  Florence  of  the  fifteenth  century,  to  contrast 
Savonarola's  ardent  Christianity  with  the  Medicis  and  the 
Greek  love  for  beauty,  and  to  show  the  influence  of  the 
time  upon  two  widely  different  characters,  Romola  and 
Tito  Melema.  This  novel  is  the  greatest  intellectual 
achievement  of  its  author,  but  it  has  not  the  warmth  of 
life,  the  vitality,  and  vigor  of  her  English  stories.  Though 
no  pains  is  spared  to  delineate  Romola,  Tito,  and  the 
inspiring  monk,  Savonarola,  yet  they  do  not  possess  the 
genuineness  and  reality  that  are  felt  in  her  Warwickshire 
characters. 

Middlemarch  (1871-1872)  and  Daniel  Deronda  (1876) 
mark  the  decline  of  George  Eliot's  powers.  She  still 
possessed  the  ability  to  handle  dialogue,  to  analyze  subtle, 
complex  characters,  and  to  attain  a  philosophical  grasp  of 
the  problems  of  existence.  Her  weakening  powers  are 
shown  in  the  length  of  tedious  passages,  in  an  undue 
prominence  of  ethical  purpose,  in  the  more  studied  and, 
on  the  whole,  duller  characters,  and  in  the  prolixity  of  style. 

George  Eliot's  poetry  does  not  bear  comparison  with  her 
prose.  The  Spanish  Gypsy  (1868)  is  her  most  ambitious 
poem,  and  it  contains  some  fine  dramatic  passages.  Her 
most  beautiful  poem  is  the  hymn  beginning:  — 

"  Oh,  may  I  join  the  choir  invisible 
Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence  !" 


GEORGE   ELIOT  449 

There  is  a  strain  of  noble  thought  and  lofty  feeling  in  her 
poems,  and  she  rises  easily  to  the  necessary  passion  and 
fervor  of  verse,  but  her  expression  is  hampered  by  the 
metrical  form. 

General  Characteristics. —  George  Eliot  is  more  strictly 
modern  in  spirit  than  either  of  the  other  two  great  con- 
temporary novelists.  This  spirit  is  exhibited  chiefly  in  her 
ethical  purpose,  her  scientific  sympathies,  and  her  minute 
dissection  of  character. 

Her  writings  manifest  her  desire  to  benefit  human  beings 
by  convincing  them  that  nature's  laws  are  inexorable,  and 
that  an  infraction  of  the  moral  law  will  be  punished  as 
surely  .as  disobedience  to  physical  laws.  She  strives  to 
arouse  people  to  a  knowledge  of  hereditary  influences,  and 
to  show  how  every  deed  brings  its  own  results  and  works, 
directly  or  indirectly,  toward  the  salvation  or  ruin  of  the 
doer.  And  she  throws  her  whole  strength  into  an  attempt 
to  prove  that  joy  is  to  be  found  only  in  strict  attendance 
upon  duty  and  in  self-renunciation.  In  order  to  carry 
home  these  serious  lessons  of  life,  she  deals  with  powerful 
human  tragedies,  which  impart  a  somberness  of  tone  to  all 
her  novels.  In  her  early  works,  she  treats  these  problems 
with  artistic  beauty,  but  in  her  later  ones  she  often  forgets 
the  artist  in  the  moralist,  and  uses  a  character  to  preach  a 
sermon. 

The  analytical  tendency  is  pronounced  in  George  Eliot. 
Her  works  exhibit  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  feelings,  the 
thoughts,  the  dreams,  and  purposes  of  the  characters. 
They  become  known  more  through  description  than 
through  action. 

A  striking  characteristic  of  her  men  and  women  is  their 
power  to  grow.  They  do  not  appear  ready  made  and  fin- 
ished at  the  beginning  of  a  story,  but,  like  real  human 


450  THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

beings  amid  the  struggles  of  life,  her  characters  change 
for  the  better  or  the  worse.  Tito  Melema  is  an  example 
of  her  skill  in  evolving  character.  At  the  outset,  he  is 
a  beautiful  Greek  boy  with  a  keen  zest  for  pleasure.  In 
order  to  escape  pain,  he  forsakes  a  faithful  friend,  and  lets 
his  little  sweetheart  continue  to  believe  that  she  is  married 
to  him.  He  enters  political  life,  and,  through  his  love  for 
personal  happiness,  becomes  involved  in  base  intrigues. 
The  consequences  of  his  deeds  entangle  him  finally  in  such 
a  net  of  lies  that  he  is  forced  to  betray  "every  trust  that 
was  reposed  in  him,  that  he  might  keep  himself  safe." 

George  Eliot  occasionally  brightens  the  seriousness  of 
her  works  with  humor.  Her  pages  are  not  permeated 
with  joyousness,  as  Dickens's  are,  nor  do  they  ripple  with 
quiet  amusement,  like  Thackeray's,  but  she  puts  witty  and 
aphoristic  sayings  into  the  conversations  of  the  characters. 
The  scene  at  the  "  Rainbow  "  inn  is  bristling  with  mother 
wit.  Mr.  Macey  observes  :  — 

"'There's  allays  two  'pinions;  there's  the  'pinion  a  man  has  of 
himsen,  and  there's  the  'pinion  other  folks  have  on  him.  There'd  be 
two  'pinions  about  a  cracked  bell  if  the  bell  could  hear  itself.' " * 

Great  precision  and  scholarlike  correctness  mark  the 
style  of  George  Eliot.  Her  vocabulary,  though  large,  is 
too  full  of  abstract  and  scientific  terms  to  permit  of  great 
flexibility  and  idiomatic  purity  of  English.  She  is  master 
of  powerful  figures  of  speech,  original,  epigrammatic  turns 
of  expression,  and,  sometimes,  of  a  stirring  eloquence. 

ROBERT   BROWNING,   1812-1889 

Life.  —  The  two  most  eminent  poets  of  the  Victorian 
age  are  Browning  and  Tennyson.  Their  long  and  peace- 

1  Silas  Marner,  Chap.  VI. 


ROBERT   BROWNING 


451 


fill  lives  are  in  marked  contrast  to  the  short  and  troubled 
careers  of  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Keats. 

Robert  Browning's  life  was  uneventful  but  happy.  He 
inherited  a  magnificent  physique  and  constitution  from  his 
father,  who  never  knew  a  day's  illness.  With  such  health, 
Robert  Browning  felt  a  keen  relish  for  physical  existence 
and  a  robust  joyousness  in  all  kinds  of  activity.  Late  in 
life  he  wrote,  in  the  poem  At  the  Mermaid  :  — 

"  Have  you  found  your  life  distasteful? 
My  life  did,  and  does,  smack  sweet. 


452  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

I  find  earth  not  gray  but  rosy, 
Heaven  not  grim  but  fair  of  hue. 
Do  I  stoop  ?     I  pluck  a  posy. 
Do  I  stand  and  stare  ?    All's  blue." 

Again,  in  Saul,  he  burst  forth  with  the  lines :  — 

"  How  good  is  man's  life,  the  mere  living  !  how  fit  to  employ 
All  the  heart  and  the  soul  and  the  senses  forever  in  joy." 

These  lines,  vibrant  with  life  and  joy,  could  not  have  been 
written  by  a  man  of  failing  vitality  or  physical  weakness. 

Robert  Browning  was  born  in  1812  at  Camberwell,  whose 
slopes  overlook  the  smoky  chimneys  of  London.  In  this 
beautiful  suburb  he  spent  his  early  years  in  the  companion- 
ship of  a  brother  and  a  sister.  A  highly  gifted  father  and 
a  musical  mother  assisted  intelligently  in  the  development 
of  their  children.  Browning's  education  was  conducted 
mainly  under  his  father's  eye.  The  boy  attended  neither 
a  large  school  nor  a  college.  After  he  had  passed  from 
the  hands  of  tutors,  he  spent  some  time  in  travel,  and  was 
wont  to  call  Italy  his  university.  Although  his  training 
was  received  in  an  irregular  way,  his  scholarship  cannot 
be  doubted  by  the  student  of  his  poetry. 

Upon  reading  the  poems  of  Shelley  and  Keats,  the  boy's 
soul  drank  in  the  fancy  and  melody  of  these  masters  of 
song,  and  he  yearned  to  become  a  great  poet.  His  father 
had  little  faith  in  these  boyish  dreams,  but  he  wisely  re- 
frained from  interfering  with  his  son's  ambitions. 

From  this  time,  Browning's  life  was  devoted  to  literature. 
His  works  met  with  little  success,  but  he  never  lost  faith 
in  his  power,  and  he  continued  to  grow  and  develop  along 
his  own  lines.  Finally,  in  1855,  he  published  Men  and 
Women  and  won  an  enthusiastic,  if  not  a  wide,  audience. 

In  1846  he  married  the  poet  Elizabeth  Barrett,  whose 


ROBERT  BROWNING 


453 


reputation  was  then  greater  than  his  own.  During  the  fif- 
teen years  of  happy  married  life  that  followed,  Browning 
and  his  wife  lived  in  Italy,  where  the  balmy  air  infused 
fresh  life  into  the  fragile  form  of  Mrs.  Browning.  She 
has  given  expression  to  the  deep  love  and  joy  of  these 
years  in  her  most  beautiful  work,  the  Sonnets  from  the 
Portuguese.  Her  death  in  1861  was  a  shock  from  which 
her  husband  never  fully  recovered.  There  is  a  deeper 
note  to  the  writings  which  followed  this  one  great  sorrow 
of  his  life. 


BROWNING'S 


IN    VENICE,    PALAZZO    REZZONICO 


His  genial  nature  and  the  constantly  increasing  fame 
which  he  enjoyed  during  his  later  years  caused  him  to  be 
the  center  of  much  of  London's  social  life.  These  years 
were  spent  with  his  sister  or  his  famous  son,  Robert 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  29 


454  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

Barrett  Browning.  In  December,  1889,  the  poet  lay  upon 
his  death  bed  in  Venice,  in  a  beautiful  room,  which  Robert 
Barrett  had  frescoed.  Turning  to  his  son,  the  poet  asked 
if  any  word  had  come  concerning  his  last  book.  A  tele- 
gram, expressing  the  enthusiastic  reception  given  to  Aso- 
lando,  was  shown  him.  "  How  gratifying,"  he  murmured. 
In  a  few  moments  he  was  dead,  and  both  Italy  and  Eng- 
land were  in  mourning. 

Dramatic  Monologues.  —  Browning  was  a  poet  of  great 
productivity.  From  the  publication  of  Pauline  in  1833  to 
Asolando  in  1889,  there  were  only  short  pauses  between  the 
appearances  of  his  works.  Unlike  Tennyson,  Browning 
could  not  stop  to  revise  and  recast  them,  but  he  constantly 
sought  expression,  in  narratives,  dramas,  lyrics,  and  mono- 
logues, for  new  thoughts  and  feelings. 

The  study  of  the  human  soul  held  an  unfailing  charm 
for  Browning.  He  analyzes  with  marked  keenness  and 
subtlety  the  experiences  of  the  soul,  its  sickening  failures 
and  its  eager  strivings  amid  complex,  puzzling  conditions. 
In  nearly  all  of  his  poems,  whether  narrative,  lyric,  or  dra- 
matic, the  chief  interest  centers  about  some  "  incidents  in 
the  development  of  a  soul." 

The  poetic  form  which  he  found  best  adapted  to  "  the 
development  of  a  soul "  was  the  dramatic  monologue. 
Requiring  but  one  speaker,  this  form  permits  all  the  force 
to  be  concentrated  upon  his  emotions,  character,  and  growth. 
Browning  is  one  of  the  greatest  masters  of  the  dramatic 
monologue.  Most  of  his  best  monologues  are  to  be  found 
in  the  volumes  known  as  Dramatic  Lyrics  (1842),  Dramatic 
Romances  and  Lyrics  (1845),  Men  and  Women  (1855),  Dra- 
matis Personce  (1864). 

My  Last  Duchess,  Andrea  del  Sarto,  and  The  Bishop 
Orders  His  Tomb  at  St.  Praxed's  Church  are  three  strong 


ROBERT   BROWNING 


455 


representative  monologues.  The  speaker  in  My  Last 
Duchess  is  the  widowed  Duke,  who  is  describing  the  por- 
trait of  his  lost  wife.  In  his  blind  conceit,  he  is  utterly 
unconscious  that  he  is  exhibiting  clearly  his  own  coldly 
selfish  nature  and  his  wife's  sweet,  sunny  disposition.  The 
chief  power  of  the  poem  lies  in  the  astonishing  ease  with 
which  he  is  made  to  reveal  his  own  character. 

The  interest  in  Andrea  del  Sarto  is  in  the  mental  con- 
flict of  this  "faultless  painter."  He  wishes,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  please  his  wife  with  popular  pictures,  and  yet  he 
yearns  for  higher  ideals  of  his  art.  He  says  :  — 

"  Ah,  but  a  man's  reach  should  exceed  his  grasp, 
Or  what's  a  heaven  for  ?  " 

As  he  sits  in  the  twilight,  holding  his  wife's  hand,  and 
talking  in  a  half-musing  way,  it  is  readily  seen  that  his  love 
for  this  beautiful  but  soulless  woman  has  caused  many  of 
his  failures  and  sorrows  in  the  past,  and  will  continue  to 
arouse  conflicts  of  soul  in  the  future. 

In  the  poem  entitled  The  Bisliop  Orders  His  Tomb  at 
St.  Praxed's  Church,  Browning  shows  a  keen  insight  into 
a  luxurious,  sensuous,  vain  nature.  Even  in  the  hour  of 
death,  the  Bishop  takes  delight  in  reviewing  his  worldly 
successes,  and  in  the  thought  that  his  tomb  will  be  richer 
than  his  rival's,  and  will  have  a  purer  Latin  inscription. 

The  beautiful  song  of  David  in  the  poem  entitled  Saul 
shows  a  wonderful  sympathy  with  the  old  Hebrew  proph- 
ecies. Clean  expresses  the  views  of  an  early  Greek  upon 
the  teachings  of  Christ  and  St.  Paul.  The  Soliloquy  of  a 
Spanish  Cloister  describes  the  development  of  a  coarse, 
jealous  nature  in  monastic  life.  Abt  ]"oglcr,  one  of 
Browning's  noblest  poems,  voices  the  exquisite  raptures  of 
a  musician's  soul.  And  that  remarkable,  grotesque,  vul- 


456  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

garly  humorous  poem,  Caliban  upon  Setebos,  transcends 
human  fields  altogether,  and  displays  the  brutelike, 
Satanic  theology  of  a  fiend. 

In  these  monologues,  Browning  interprets  characters  of 
varying  faiths,  nationalities,  stations,  and  historic  periods. 
He  shows  a  wide  range  of  knowledge  and  sympathy.  One 
character,  however,  which  he  rarely  presents,  is  the  simple, 
commonplace  man  or  woman.  Browning  excels  in  the 
portrayal  of  unusual,  intricate,  and  difficult  characters, 
that  have  complicated  problems  to  face,  weaknesses  to 
overcome,  or  lofty  ambitions  to  attain. 

The  Ring  and  the  Book.  —  Browning's  most  masterly 
study  of  the  human  soul  is  The  Ring  and  the  Book  (1868- 
1869),  which  is  a  long  poem  made  up  of  a  series  of  mono- 
logues. The  tragic  story  is  briefly  told  in  the  first  and 
last  books.  In  each  of  the  ten  remaining  books,  some  one 
speaker  or  class  expresses  views  of  the  incidents,  and  ten 
different  versions  of  the  tragedy  are  thus  given.  This  was 
a  bold  and  wholly  unique  plan,  but  it  offered  peculiar 
opportunities  to  such  a  subtle  analyst  as  Browning. 

The  subject  of  the  story  is  an  innocent  girl,  Pompilia, 
who,  under  the  protection  of  a  noble  priest,  flees  from  her 
brutal  husband  and  seeks  the  home  of  her  foster  parents. 
Her  husband  wrathfully  pursues  her  and  kills  both  her  and 
her  parents.  While  this  is  but  the  barest  outline,  yet  the 
story  in  its  complete  form  is  very  simple;  and,  as  is  usual 
with  Browning,  the  chief  stress  is  laid  upon  the  character 
portrayal. 

The  four  important  characters  —  Guido,  the  husband ; 
Caponsacchi,  the  priest;  Pompilia,  the  girl-wife;  and  the 
Pope  —  stand  out  in  strong  relief.  The  greatest  devel- 
opment of  character  is  seen  in  Guido,  who  starts  with  a 
defiant,  insulting  spirit  of  certain  victory,  but  gradually 


ROBERT   BROWNING  457 

becomes  more  subdued  and  abject,  when  he  finds  that 
he  is  to  be  killed,  and  he  finally  shrieks  in  agony  for  the 
help  of  his  victim,  Pompilia.  In  Caponsacchi  there  is  the 
inward  questioning  of  the  right  and  the  wrong.  He  is  a 
strongly  drawn  character,  full  of  passion  and  noble  desires. 
Pompilia  is  one  of  Browning's  sweetest  and  purest  women. 
She  has  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  the  right.  The  Pope, 
with  his  calm,  wise  judgment  and  his  lofty  philosophy,  is 
probably  the  greatest  product  of  Browning's  intellect. 

The  books  containing  the  monologues  of  these  charac- 
ters take  first  place  among  Browning's  writings  and  occupy 
a  high  position  in  the  century's  work.  They  have  a  strik- 
ing originality,  intensity,  vigor,  and  imaginative  richness. 
The  remaining  books  are  incomparably  inferior,  and  are 
marked  at  times  by  mere  acuteness  of  reason  and  thor- 
oughness of  legal  knowledge. 

A  Dramatic  Poet.  —  Although  Browning's  genius  is 
strongly  dramatic,  his  best  work  is  not  found  in  the  field 
of  the  drama.  Strafford  (1837),  A  Blot  on  the  'Scutcheon 
(1843),  and  Colombes  Birthday  (1843)  have  been  staged 
successfully,  but  they  cannot  be  called  great  acting  plays. 
The  action  is  slight,  the  characters  are  complex,  the  solilo- 
quies are  lengthy,  and  the  climaxes  are  too  often  wholly 
dependent  upon  emotional  intensity  and  not  upon  great  or 
exciting  deeds.  The  strongest  interest  of  the  dramas  lies 
in  their  psychological  subtlety,  and  this  is  more  enjoyable 
in  the  study  than  in  the  theater. 

Browning's  dramatic  power  is  well  exhibited  in  poems 
like  In  a  Balcony  or  Pippa  Passes,  where  powerful  indi- 
vidual scenes  are  presented  without  all  the  accompanying 
details  of  a  complete  drama.  The  great  force  of  such 
scenes  lies  in  his  manner  of  treating  moments  of  severe 
trial.  He  selects  such  a  moment,  focuses  his  whole  genius 


458  THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

upon  it,  as  upon  life's  pivotal  center,  and  makes  the  deed 
committed  then  stand  forth  as  an  explanation  of  all  the 
past  emotions  and  as  a  prophecy  of  all  future  acts. 

Pippa  Passes  is  one  of  Browning's  most  artistic  presen- 
tations of  such  dramatic  scenes.  The  little  silk  weaver, 
Pippa,  rises  on  the  morning  of  her  one  holiday  in  the 
year,  with  the  intention  of  enjoying  in  fancy  the  pleasures 
"of  the  Happiest  Four  in  our  Asolo,"not  knowing,  in  her 
innocence,  of  their  misery  and  guilt.  She  wanders  from 
house  to  house,  singing  her  pure,  significant  refrains,  and, 
in  each  case,  her  songs  arrest  the  attention  of  the  hearer 
at  a  critical  moment.  She  thus  becomes  unconsciously  a 
means  of  salvation.  The  first  scene  is  the  most  intense. 
She  approaches  the  home  of  the  lovers,  Sebald  and 
Ottima,  after  the  murder  of  Ottima's  husband,  when  they 
are  triumphant  in  sin.  As  Sebald  begins  to  reflect  on  the 
murder,  there  comes  this  song  of  Pippa's,  like  the  knock- 
ing at  the  gate  in  Macbeth,  to  loose  the  floodgates  of 
remorse :  — 

"  The  year's  at  the  spring 
And  day's  at  the  morn  ; 
Morning's  at  seven ; 
The  hillside's  dew-pearled ; 
The  lark's  on  the  wing ; 
The  snail's  on  the  thorn : 
God's  in  his  heaven  — 
All's  right  with  the  world  ! " 

His  Optimistic  Philosophy.  —  It  has  been  seen  that  the 
Victorian  age,  as  presented  by  Matthew  Arnold,  was  a 
period  of  doubt  and  negation.  Browning  would  not  be 
overcome  and  swept  off  the  firm  shore  of  faith  by  this 
enormous  tidal  wave  of  doubt.  He  recognized  fully  the 
difficulties  of  religious  faith  in  an  age  just  awakening  to 


ROBERT   BROWNING  459 

scientific  inquiry,  and  yet  he  retained  a  strong,  fearless 
trust  in  God  and  immortality. 

Browning's  reason  demanded  this  belief.  In  this 
earthly  life,  he  saw  the  evil  overcome  the  good,  and  beheld 
injustice,  defeat,  and  despair  follow  the  noblest  efforts.  If 
there  exists  no  compensation  for  these  things,  he  says  that 
life  is  a  cheat,  the  moral  nature  a  lie,  and  God  a  fiend. 
But  when  this  present  life  is  looked  upon  as  a  place  of 
training  for  a  purer  life,  when  defeat  is  a  discipline  for 
ennobling  the  soul,  when  evil  is  an  enemy  to  test  the 
strength  of  man's  might,  and  death  is  the  last  battle, 
which  passes  man  on  to  his  immortal  heritage,  then  this 
life  on  earth  is  a  reasonable,  holy  thing,  and  all  the 
suffering  and  sin  are  divinely  sent. 

There  is  no  hesitancy  in  this  philosophy  of  Browning. 
With  it,  he  does  not  fear  to  face  all  the  problems  and  mys- 
teries of  existence.  Such  a  philosophy  of  faith  makes  life 
wholly  intelligible  to  him,  and  gives  him  a  trust  in  God 
which  is  gloriously,  exultingly  firm.  No  other  poet  strikes 
such  a  resonant,  hopeful  note  as  he.  His  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra 
is  more  a  song  of  triumphant  faith  than  anything  written 
since  the  Puritan  days :  — 

"  Earth  changes,  but  thy  soul  and  God  stand  sure : 
What  entered  into  thee, 
That  was,  is,  and  shall  be : 
Time's  wheel  runs  back  or  stops  :  Potter  and  clay  endure." 

General  Characteristics.  —  Browning  is  a  poet  of  striking 
originality  and  impelling  force.  His  writings  are  the  spon- 
taneous outpourings  of  a  rich,  full  nature,  whose  main 
fabric  is  intellect,  but  intellect  illumined  with  the  glittering 
light  of  spiritual  hopefulness  and  flushed  with  the  glow  of 
deep  human  passion. 


460  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

The  subject  of  his  greatest  poetry  is  the  human  soul. 
While  he  possesses  a  large  portion  of  dramatic  suggestive- 
ness,  he  nevertheless  does  not  excel  in  setting  off  charac- 
ter against  character  in  movement  and  speech,  but  rather 
in  a  minute,  penetrating  analysis,  by  which  he  insinuates 
himself  into  the  thoughts  and  sensations  of  his  characters, 
and  views  life  through  their  eyes. 

He  is  a  pronounced  realist.  His  verse  deals  not  only 
with  the  beautiful  and  the  romantic,  but  also  with  the  pro- 
saic and  the  ugly,  if  they  furnish  true  pictures  for  the 
panorama  of  real  life.  The  unconventionally  and  realism 
of  his  poetic  art  will  be  made  manifest  by  merely  reading 
through  the  titles  of  his  numerous  works. 

Browning  did  not  write  to  amuse  and  entertain,  but 
to  stimulate  thought  and  to  "sting"  the  conscience  to 
activity.  The  meaning  of  his  verse  was,  therefore,  the 
matter  of  paramount  importance,  far  overshadowing  the 
form  of  expression.  In  the  haste  and  carelessness  with 
which  he  wrote  many  of  his  difficult  abstruse  poems,  he 
laid  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  obscurity. 

His  style  has  a  strikingly  individual  stamp,  which  is 
marked  far  more  by  strength  than  by  beauty.  The  bare 
and  rugged  style  of  his  verse  is  often  made  profoundly 
impressive  by  its  strenuous  earnestness,  its  burning  in- 
tensity, which  seems  to  necessitate  the  broken  lines  and 
halting,  interrupted  rhythm.  The  following  utterance  of 
Caponsacchi,  as  he  stands  before  his  judges,  will  show  the 
intensity  and  ruggedness  of  Browning's  blank  verse :  — 

"  Sirs,  how  should  I  lie  quiet  in  my  grave 
Unless  you  suffer  me  wring,  drop  by  drop, 
My  brain  dry,  make  a  riddance  of  the  drench 
Of  minutes  with  a  memory  in  each  ?  " 

His    lines   are   often    harsh    and    dissonant.      Even  in 


ROBERT  BROWNING  461 

the   noble   poem  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra,   this  jolting  line  ap- 
pears :  — 

"  Irks  care  the  crop-full  bird?     Frets  doubt  the  maw-crammed  beast?" 
And  in  Sordello,  Browning  writes :  — 

"  The  Troubadour  who  sung 
Hundreds  of  songs,  forgot,  its  trick  his  tongue, 
Its  craft  his  brain." 

No  careful  artist  tolerates  such  ugly,  rasping  inversions. 

In  spite  of  these  inharmonious  tendencies  in  Browning, 
his  poetry  at  times  can  sing  with  a  lovely  lyric  lightness, 
such  as  is  heard  in  these  lines :  — 

"  Oh,  to  be  in  England 
Now  that  April's  there, 
And  whoever  wakes  in  England 
Sees,  some  morning,  unaware, 
That  the  lowest  boughs  and  the  brushwood  sheaf 
Round  the  elm-tree  bole  are  in  tiny  leaf, 
While  the  chaffinch  sings  on  the  orchard  bough 
In  England  —  now!"  * 

Or  his  verse  can  swell  and  fall  with  a  billowlike  rhythm 
like  that  of  Saul  or  of  these  lines  in  Abt  Vogler:  — 

"  There  shall  never  be  one  lost  good  !     What  was,  shall  live  as  before  ; 
The  evil  is  null,  is  nought,  is  silence  implying  sound ; 
What  was  good  shall  be  good,  with,  for  evil,  so  much  good  more ; 
On  the  earth  the  broken  arcs ;  in  the  heaven,  a  perfect  round." 

While,  therefore,  Browning's  poetry  is  often  harsh, 
faulty,  and  obscure,  at  times  his  melodies  can  be  rhyth- 
mically simple  and  beautiful.  He  is  one  of  the  subtlest 
analysts  of  the  human  mind,  the  most  original  and  impas- 
sioned poet  of  his  age,  and  one  of  the  most  hopeful,  inspir- 
ing, and  uplifting  teachers  of  modern  times. 

1  Home  Thoughts  from  Abroad, 


462 


THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 


ALFRED  TENNYSON,   1809-1892 

Life. — Alfred  Tennyson  was  born  in  Somersby,  Lin- 
colnshire, in  1809.  He  was  the  fourth  child  of  the  cul- 
tured rector  of  Somersby,  and  grew  up  with  seven  brothers 
and  four  sisters  amid  a  romantic  world  of  the  past.  The 
children  knew  far  more  about  knights,  giants,  and  princesses 
than  about  the  busy  world  a  few  miles  distant. 

When  Alfred  was  seven  years  old,  he  went  to  his  grand- 
mother's in  order  to  attend  the  Louth  Grammar  School, 
which,  to  his  dying  day,  he  remembered  with  hatred  be- 


ALFRED  TENNYSON 


463 


cause  of  the  stern,  flogging  master.  At  the  age  of  eleven 
the  boy  returned  home,  and,  under  his  father's  tutelage, 
prepared  for  college.  The  future  poet  entered  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  in  1828,  but  did  not  remain  long 
enough  to  take  a  degree. 

After  his  father's  death  in  1831,  Alfred  Tennyson  con- 
tinued to  live  for  six  years  with  his  mother  and  sisters 
in  the  quiet  little  village  where  he  was  born.  They  then 
moved  to  a  place  in  Epping  Forest,  where  they  spent 
three  years.  Tennyson  resided  at  various  places  in  Eng- 
land from  that  time  until  1853,  when  he  moved  to  Farring- 
ford,  on  the  Isle  of  Wight. 


TENNYSON'S    BIRTHPLACE1 

His  life  was  consecrated  to  poetry,  and  his  time  was 
passed  either  in  the  study  of  nature  or  among  his  books. 
During  these  years  existence  was  saddened  for  him  by 
the  death  of  his  noblest  and  dearest  friend,  Arthur  Henry 

1  "  The  silent  woody  places 

By  the  home  that  gave  me  birth." 


464  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

Hallam.  Another  cause  of  sorrow  to  Tennyson  was  the 
enforced  breaking  of  his  engagement  to  Miss  Emily 
Sellwood  on  account  of  an  insufficient  income.  It  was 
not  until  thirteen  years  after  he  had  first  become  en- 
gaged, that  he  felt  able  to  offer  Miss  Sellwood  a  home. 
They  were  married  in  1850,  the  same  year  in  which  he 
published  In  Memoriam  and  became  poet  laureate.  By 
this  time  Tennyson  was  almost  universally  accorded  first 
place  among  living  poets.  His  popularity  far  exceeded 
that  which  Browning  enjoyed.  Unlike  Browning,  how- 
ever, Tennyson  had  an  extremely  retiring  nature,  and  he 
shunned  the  lionizing  of  London  society  and  the  gaze  of 
sightseers. 

Tennyson's  most  famous  days  are  associated  with  two 
homes.  Farringford  on  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
Isle  of  Wight  was  his  residence  for  the  greater  part  of 
each  year  from  1853  until  his  death.  Here  in  his  "ivied 
home  among  the  pine  trees,"  he  looked  with  loving  eyes 
on  the  "beautiful  blue  hyacinths,  orchises,  primroses, 
daisies,  marsh  marigolds,  and  cuckoo  flowers,"  and  mag- 
nificent trees.  The  song  of  the  birds,  the  beauty  of  the 
fields,  and  the  ever-changing  face  of  the  sea  ministered 
to  his  different  moods.  In  1868  he  built  near  Haslemere 
in  Surrey  a  new  residence,  which  he  called  Aldworth. 
In  1884  he  was  raised  to  the  peerage  with  the  title  of 
Baron  of  Aldworth  and  Farringford.  He  died  in  1892, 
at  the  age  of  eighty-three,  and  was  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey  beside  Robert  Browning. 

Poetic  Apprenticeship.  —  Some  poets,  like  Coleridge,  attain 
the  summit  of  their  development  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
five,  but  Tennyson  does  not  belong  to  that  class.  Before 
he  was  thirty,  he  had  written  many  poems  distinguished 
for  their  lightness  of  touch  and  beauty  of  expression,  but 


ALFRED  TENNYSON  465 

they  lack  depth.  His  verse  was  at  this  time  in  keeping 
with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  which  felt  no  strong  impulse  in 
any  direction. 

We  find  him  in  his  early  poems  writing  of  "Airy,  fairy 
Lilian"  and  "sweet,  pale  Margaret,"  and  asking:  — 

•'  Who  would  be 
A  mermaid  fair 
Singing  alone?"1 

Some  of  these  early  lyrics  have,  however,  such  rare 
fancy,  melody,  and  beauty,  that  they  continue  to  give 
exquisite  pleasure.  The  following  lines  from  The  Sea- 
Fairies  show  these  qualities  :  — 

"  And  the  rainbow  lives  in  the  curve  of  the  sand ; 
Hither,  come  hither  and  see  ; 
And  the  rainbow  hangs  on  the  poising  wave, 
And  sweet  is  the  color  of  cove  and  cave 
And  sweet  shall  your  welcome  be." 

The  majority  of  those  poems  in  his  1833  volume,  that 
are  such  favorites  to-day,  were  unsparingly  revised  and 
changed  for  the  better  before  they  were  again  issued  in 
the  form  in  which  we  now  have  them. 

The  death  of  Hallam  set  Tennyson  to  musing  on  deeper 
themes.  This  event  and  the  adverse  comments  of  the 
critics  on  his  earlier  verse  were  among  the  influences 
which  caused  him  to  publish  nothing  for  the  next  nine 
years.  His  son  and  biographer  says  that  the  poet  during 
this  period  "  profited  by  friendly  and  unfriendly  criticism, 
and  in  silence,  obscurity,  and  solitude,  perfected  his  art. 
.  .  .  Hundreds  of  lines  were,  as  he  expressed  it,  'blown 
up  the  chimney  with  his  pipe  smoke,  or  were  written  down 
and  thrown  into  the  fire,  as  not  being  then  perfect  enough.' 

1  7'Ae  Alermaid. 


466  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

The  Brook  in  later  years  was  actually  rescued  from  the 
waste-paper  heap." 

Volumes  of  1842.  — In  1842,  at  the  age  of  thirty-three, 
he  published  two  volumes,  one  of  which  contained  many 
of  his  former  poems  vastly  improved,  while  the  other  was 
filled  with  new  material.  In  these  volumes  were  such 
favorites  as  the  richly  ornamented  lyric  The  Palace  of  Art, 
the  gem  called,  from  its  first  line,  Break,  break,  break, 
the  tender  English  idyls  Dora  and  The  Gardiner's  Daugh- 
ter, the  stately  specimens  of  blank  verse  entitled  Ulysses 
and  Morte  d'  Arthur,  the  passionate  couplets  of  Locksley 
Hall,  and  The  Two  Voices. 

These  poems  show  that  Tennyson  had  gained  rare 
mastery  over  his  art.  They  abound  in  passages  which 
give  exquisite  pleasure  because  of  the  beauty  of  the  pic- 
ture or  the  felicity  of  the  expression. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  say  that  these  poems  are  as 
remarkable  for  their  depth  of  thought  as  for  their  beauty, 
but  they  show  increasing  power  to  grasp  reality,  and  grow- 
ing capacity  for  thought.  For  instance,  these  two  lines 
from  Locksley  Hall — 

"  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  Life,  and  smote  on  all  the  chords  with  might ; 
Smote  the  chord  of  Self,  that,  trembling,  pass'd  in  music  out  of  sight," 

unfold  a  great  moral  truth.  The  more  we  reflect  upon  it, 
the  deeper  and  the  more  beautiful  does  the  significance  of 
the  thought  appear. 

A  friend,  wishing  to  secure  a  pension  for  Tennyson, 
read  Ulysses  to  Sir  Robert  Peel.  When  that  prime  minis- 
ter heard  such  lines  as  these  :  — 

"  I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met ; 
Yet  all  experience  is  an  arch  wherethro' 


ALFRED  TENNYSON  467 

Gleams  that  untravel'd  world,  whose  margin  fades 
Forever  and  forever  when  I  move. 
How  dull  it  is  to  pause,  to  make  an  end, 
To  rust  unburnish'd,  not  to  shine  in  use  ! 
As  tho1  to  breathe  were  life," 

he  gave  Tennyson  a  yearly  pension  of  £200. 

The  Princess  and  Maud.  —  Tennyson  had  hitherto  pro- 
duced only  short  poems,  but  his  next  three  efforts,  The 
Princess  (1847),  ?n  Memoriam  (1850),  and  Maud  (1855) 
are  of  considerable  length.  The  Princess  and  Maud  may 
be  grouped  together  because  the  short  lyrics  which  they 
contain  are  the  best  parts  of  both  poems. 

The  Princess  :  A  Medley,  as  Tennyson  rightly  termed  it, 
contains  3223  lines  of  blank  verse.  The  poem  tells  in 
a  half-humorous  way  the  story  of  a  Princess  who  broke  off 
her  engagement  to  a  Prince,  founded  a  college  for  women, 
and  determined  to  devote  her  life  to  making  them  equal  to 
men.  The  poem  abounds  in  exquisite  melody  and  glorious 
imagery,  but  nothing  original  is  contributed  to  the  solution 
of  the  woman  question.  The  finest  parts  of  the  poem  are 
the  songs  beginning:  "Sweet  and  low,"  "The  splendor 
falls  on  castle  walls,"  "Tears,  idle  tears."  "  O,  Swallow, 
Swallow,  flying,  flying  South,"  and  "Ask  me  no  more." 

Maud,  a  lyrical  monodrama,  paints  the  emotions  of  a 
lover  who  passes  from  morbid  gloom  to  ecstasy.  Then  in 
a  moment  of  anger  he  murders  Maud's  brother.  Despair, 
insanity,  and  recovery  follow,  but  he  sees  Maud's  face  no 
more.  While  the  poem  as  a  whole  is  not  a  masterpiece, 
yet  it  contains  lyrics  which  justify  Tennyson's  classing  it 
among  his  finest  works.  Note  the  beauty  of  these  lines: — 

"  And  the  woodbine  spices  are  wafted  abroad, 
And  the  musk  of  the  rose  is  blown. 


468  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

"For  a  breeze  of  morning  moves, 
And  the  planet  of  Love  is  on  high, 
Beginning  to  faint  in  the  light  that  she  loves, 
On  a  bed  of  daffodil  sky. 

"  From  the  meadow  your  walks  have  left  so  sweet, 
That  whenever  a  March  wind  sighs, 
He  sets  the  jewel-print  of  your  feet 
In  violets  blue  as  your  eyes." 

Tennyson  was  fond  of  reading  from  Maud.  His  son, 
referring  to  the  following  stanza,  says  that  his  father's 
eyes  "would  suddenly  flash  as  he  looked  up  and  spoke 
these  words,  the  passion  in  his  voice  deepening  in  the  last 
words  of  the  stanza  "  : — 

"  She  is  coming,  my  own,  my  sweet ; 
Were  it  ever  so  airy  a  tread, 
My  heart  would  hear  her  and  beat, 
Were  it  earth  in  an  earthy  bed ; 
My  dust  would  hear  her  and  beat, 
Had  I  lain  for  a  century  dead  ; 
Would  start  and  tremble  under  her  feet, 
And  blossom  in  purple  and  red." 

In  Memoriam.  —  One  of  the  most  profound  experiences 
of  Tennyson's  life  was  the  loss  of  Arthur  Hallam.  It 
brought  the  poet  face  to  face  with  the  vital  questions  of 
existence,  and  called  forth  the  masterpiece  of  his  genius, 
In  Memoriam  (1850).  He  did  not  originally  intend  publish- 
ing the  short  lyrics  which  he  wrote  from  time  to  time  to 
express  his  grief,  but,  in  1850,  he  collected  them  and  pub- 
lished them  as  one  long  poem,  made  up  of  725  four-line 
stanzas. 

This  work  is  one  of  the  three  great  elegiacs  of  a  litera- 
ture which  stands  first  in  elegiac  poetry.  Lycidas  has 
more  of  a  massive,  commanding  power  than  In  Memoriam, 


ALFRED  TENNYSON  469 

and  Adonais  rises  at  times  to  poetic  heights  which  Tenny- 
son could  not  reach,  but  neither  Lycidas  nor  Adonais  equals 
In  Memoriam  in  expressions  of  a  passionate  living  grief. 
Every  shadow  cast  over  the  human  heart  by  bereavement 
is  traced,  from  the  shadow  of  despair  which  mantles  all 
when  death  is  first  met,  through  the  softening  of  grief, 
when  the  mourner  can  say :  — 

"  Peace  ;  come  away :  the  song  of  woe 
Is  after  all  an  earthly  song,"  1 

to  the  final  victory  when  the  heart,  feeling  that  its  sorrows 
have  purified  it  and  widened  its  sympathy  for  other  suf- 
ferers, can  sing :  — 

"  Regret  is  dead,  but  love  is  more 

Than  in  the  summers  that  are  flown, 
For  I  myself  with  these  have  grown 
To  something  greater  than  before."  2 

In  dealing  with  this  subject,  Tennyson  necessarily 
touched  upon  immortality.  Sometimes  he  felt  a  "  spec- 
tral doubt"  that  he  should  never  more  meet  the  dead. 
His  reason  told  him  that  he  could  know  nothing,  that  he 

was  only 

"  An  infant  crying  in  the  night : 

An  infant  crying  for  the  light : 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry,"  8 

and  that  he  had  no  proof  of  immortality.  But  to  Tenny- 
son, cold  intellect  was  not  the  final  judge,  as  it  was  to 
Arnold.  Tennyson  turned  to  his  feelings  to  hear  the  last 
word  upon  eternity,  and  they  cried  out :  — 

"That  life  shall  live  forevermore."4 
His  heart 

"  Stood  up  and  answered  '  I  have  felt,' "  6 

2cxxxn.         8uv.        *  xxxiv.        6cxxiv. 

HAL.  ENG.  LIT.  —  30 


4/0  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

and  he  trusted  it  and  defied  the  cold  skepticism  of  the 
reason,  and  put  his  faith  in 

"  One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 

And  one  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves."1 

With  this  hopeful  assurance  closes  this  poem,  than  which 
Tennyson  wrote  nothing  nobler  or  more  beautiful. 

The  Idylls  of  the  King.  —  One  of  Tennyson's  most  am- 
bitious poems  is  the  Idylls  of  the  King  (1859-1885).  It 
has  for  its  subject  the  greatest  of  all  the  British  heroes  of 
romance,  King  Arthur,  .and  the  Knights  of  the  Round 
Table.  Tennyson  took  the  characters  and  stories  mainly 
as  they  are  found  in  Malory's  Mart  e  d' Arthur.  Into  these 
he  put  his  nineteenth  century  ideals  of  beauty,  love,  and 
morality,  and  ennobled  the  old  tales  of  chivalry  into  rev- 
elations of  spiritual  truth. 

King  Arthur  is  more  than  the  mighty  warrior  of  the 
early  stories ;  he  is  the  impersonation  of  that  spiritual 
power  which  can  subdue  the  lower  nature  of  man.  The 
city,  Camelot,  in  which  he  reigns,  is  the  city  of  high 
ideals,  which  is  indestructible,  for  Camelot  was 

"...  built 

To  music,  therefore  never  built  at  all, 
•    And  therefore  built  forever."  2 

Arthur's  kingdom  is  a  delightful  fairyland.  The  scenery 
is  magnificent,  and  it  seems  to  suggest  heroic  deeds  for  its 
counterpart.  The  characters  are  ideal.  Lancelot  is  the 
knight  of  knights,  unequaled  in  deeds  of  prowess,  except 
by  the  King.  Gareth  is  the  embodiment  of  youth,  Galahad 
of  purity,  Elaine  of  innocence,  Enid  of  patient  love,  but 
these  knights  and  ladies  seem  at  times  almost  as  far  re-' 

1  In  Memoriam,  CXXXII.       2  Idylls  of  (he  JCing:   Gareth  and  Lynette. 


ALFRED  TENNYSON  471 

moved  from  actual  life  as  the  characters  in  Spenser's 
Faerie  Queene.  While  the  dramatis  persona  of  the  Idylls 
of  the  King  could  not  exist  in  a  real  world,  there  is  wonder- 
ful harmony  between  them  and  their  imaginary  setting.' 
When  sin  creeps  into  this  beautiful  realm,  the  order  is 
disrupted,  and  King  Arthur  is  borne  away  on  a  "dusky 
barge  "  by  the  mystic  Queens,  and  he  passes 

"  To  the  island-valley  of  Avilion,"  *• 

where  he  will  be  "  King  among  the  dead."  The  knight 
who  watches  the  receding  barge  hears 

"  As  from  beyond  the  limit  of  the  world, 
Like  the  last  echo  born  of  a  great  cry, 
Sounds,  as  if  some  fair  city  were  one  voice 
Around  a  king  returning  from  his  wars."1 

Arthur's  spiritual  rule  has  failed  on  earth,  but  this  rule  is 
welcomed  in  another  land.  This  is  the  solace  held  out 
by  the  author. 

The  poem  is  of  the  nature  of  an  epic.  Amid  a  confus- 
ing mass  of  details,  there  is  a  thread  of  unity.  The  blank 
verse  is  noble  and  harmonious,  highly  polished  in  every 
line,  exquisite  in  individual  phrases,  and  extremely  happy 
in  the  choice  of  single  words. 

Later  Poetry.  —  In  much  of  his  later  poetry,  Tennyson 
paid  more  attention  to  the  thought  than  to  the  form  of  its 
expression.  The  second  Locksley  Hall  has  more  depth  of 
thought  than  the  first,  but  the  form  of  the  verse  in  the 
later  poem  is  less  pleasing.  He  could  show,  however, 
when  he  chose,  that  he  still  possessed  his  old  artistic 
power.  The  lyric  Crossing  the  Bar,  one  of  the  last  things 

1  The  Passing  of  Arthur. 


472  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

that  he  wrote,  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  his  poems  for 
artistic  finish  and  for  beauty. 

As  he  grew  older,  he  labored  to  produce  poetry  that 
•would  come  in  closer  touch  with  life.  The  Northern 
Farmer  and  The  Northern  Cobbler  are  two  poems  in  which 
Tennyson  escaped  from  himself  and  looked  at  life  from 
the  point  of  view  of  his  characters.  He  displays  here 
a  rich  vein  of  humor.  The  drunken  cobbler  determined 
to  reform,  and,  scorning  to  win  a  victory  in  the  absence 
of  his  enemy,  placed  a  quart  bottle  of  gin  in  the  window 
before  himself.  Anticipating  the  question  why  he  chose 
a  quart,  the  cobbler  says  :  — 

"  Wouldn't  a  pint  a1  sarved  as  well  as  a  quart?    Naw  doubt : 
But  I  liked  a  bigger  feller  to  fight  wi'  an1  fowt  it  out." 

This  desire  to  draw  closer  to  life  and  to  portray  it  in 
action  led  Tennyson  to  attempt  dramatic  composition, 
and,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six,  he  wrote  his  first  play,  Queen 
Mary.  This  was  followed  by  several  others,  but  for  nine 
years  he  failed  to  achieve  much  success  in  this  field,  until 
he  produced  Becket  in  1885.  This  play  presents  a  strong 
character  in  Archbishop  Becket,  but  Tennyson  was  too 
self-absorbed,  the  circle  of  his  sympathies  was  too  narrow, 
and  he  secluded  himself  too  much  from  his  fellow-men 
to  make  a  great  dramatist. 

Poetry  of  Nature.  —  It  is  well  to  note  the  different 
points  of  view  from  which  Tennyson  and  Wordsworth 
regarded  nature.  The  elder  poet  communed  with  a  spirit- 
ual presence  in  nature,  and  worshiped  the  mystic  soul  of 
sky,  mountain  glen,  and  humble  flower.  The  beauty  of 
the  external  face  of  nature  appealed  strongly  to  Tenny- 
son. He  loved  pictorial  effects,  and  he  sought  in  Nature 
and  her  phenomena  subjects  for  his  poetic  canvas.  A 


ALFRED  TENNYSON  473 

great  artist  could  paint  pictures  corresponding  to  these 
stanzas  from  The  Palace  of  Art :  — 

*<  One  show'd  an  iron  coast  and:  angry  waves. 
You  seem'd  to  hear  them  climb  and  fall 
And  roar  rock-thwarted  under  bellowing  caves, 
Beneath  the  windy  wall. 

"  And  one,  a  full-fed  river  winding  slow 
By  herds  upon  an  endless  plain, 
The  ragged  rims  of  thunder  brooding  low, 
With  shadow  streaks  of  rain." 

He  often  turned  to  Nature  because  her  sensuous  charms 
delighted  his  eye  or  ear.  For  this  reason  he  calls  our 

attention  to 

"  The  little  speedwell's  darling  blue, 
Deep  tulips  dasrTd  -with  fiery  dew, 
Laburnums,  dropping-wells  of  fire." 1 

He  observed  flowers  and  trees  with  something  of  a  sci- 
entist's accuracy.  He  knew  their  colors,  habitats,  times 
of  blossoming,  and  multiform  changes  through  which  they 
passed.  This  intellectual  apprehension  of  natural  objects 
enabled  him  to  point  out  pleasing  and  instructive  analo- 
gies between  them  and  his  human  characters.  Of  a  young 
man  who  made  a  thoughtless  slip,  but  who  had  in  him  the 
elements  of  manhood,  Tennyson  says  :  — 

"  He  has  a  solid  base  of  temperament ; 
But  as  the  water  lily  starts  and  slides 
Upon  the  level  in  little  puffs  of  wind, 
Tho1  anchor'd  to  the  bottom,  such  is  he."  2 

His  keen  observation  and  acuteness  of  intellect  enabled 
him  to  detect  a  likeness  between  the  rushing  water  in  the 
brook  and  the  arms  of  a  hero  :  — 

1  In  Memoriam,  LXXXIII.  2  The  Princess,  Canto  IV. 


474  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE 

".  .  .  arms  on  which  the  standing  muscle  sloped, 
As  slopes  a  wild  brook  o'er  a  little  stone, 
Running  too  vehemently  to  break  upon  it."  1 

In  short,  his  poetry  of  nature  is  remarkable  for  careful 
observation,  pictorial  effects,  sensuous  beauty,  and  for 
tracing  resemblances  between  her  manifestations  and 
certain  qualities  in  his  human  characters. 

An  Exponent  of  the  Age.  —  His  poetry  is  deeply  tinged 
with  the  new  scientific  philosophy.  The  evolution  hypoth- 
esis affected  him  powerfully.  In  Memoriam  calls  man  to 

"  Move  upward,  working  out  the  beast." 

In   the  original  Locksley  Hall  he   was   inspired   by   the 
prophecies  of  science  for  the  future,  and  he 

"  Saw  the  Vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be." 

As   he   realized   the  birthright  which  past  evolution  had 
bequeathed  to  man,  he  exclaimed :  — 

" I  the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  in  the  foremost  files  of  time."2 

The  student  will  find  that  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years 
After  (1886),  written  when  Tennyson  was  seventy-seven 
years  old,  gives  expression  to  many  of  the  disappointments 
of  the  age  :  — 

"  Evolution  ever  climbing  after  some  ideal  good, 
And  Reversion  ever  dragging  Evolution  in  the  mud." 

In  the  earlier  Locksley  Hall  Tennyson  would  not,  as  in  the 
later,  have  placed  a  question  mark  after  these  lines :  — 

"  All  diseases  quench'd  by  Science,  no  man  halt,  or  deaf,  or  blind ; 
Stronger  ever  born  of  weaker,  lustier  body,  larger  mind  ?  " 

1  Idylls  of  the  King:  Geraint  and  Enid.  2  Locksley  Hall. 


ALFRED  TENNYSON  475 

In  his  social  ideals,  and  in  the  narrowness  of  his  social 
sympathies,  he  was  least  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  struggles  of  the  French  toward 
freedom  seemed  to  him  nothing  but 

"  The  red  fool-fury  of  the  Seine." l 

It  is,  however,  a  mistake  to  say  that  he  was  not  affected 
by  the  social  movements  of  his  time.  High  place  is  given 
to  the  hero  who 

"  Strove  for  sixty  widow'd  years  to  help  his  homelier  brother  men, 
Served  the  poor,  and  built  the  cottage,  raised  the  school,  and  drain'd 
the  fen."2 

In  its  groping  after  truth,  his  poetry  is  instinct  with  the 
ethical  spirit  of  the  age,  with  its  sense  of  struggle  for  better 
things.  Tennyson  rightly  describes  himself  as  singing 

"  To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones, 

That  men  may  rise  on  stepping  stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things."8 

Such  sentiments  as  this  not  only  show  the  ethical  spirit  in 
the  progress  of  the  century,  but  they  have  also  helped  to 
mold  this  spirit.  Readers  of  Tennyson  have  felt  a  fresh 
incentive  to  rise  through  failure  "to  higher  things." 

General  Characteristics.  —  Like  the  early  eighteenth 
century  poets,  Tennyson  took  especial  pains  with  the  form 
of  his  verse.  He  ranks  high  for  artistic  ability  displayed 
in  the  selection  of  words,  in  the  elaboration  of  figures,  in 
securing  pictorial  effects,  and  in  the  metrical  structure  of 
his  verse.  As  a  metrical  artist,  he  is  outranked  by  few 
English  poets.  His  shifting  accents,  bewitching  melodies, 
and  combinations  of  sound  which  echo  the  sense,  are  a 

1  In  Memoriam,  CXXVII.  2  Locksley  Hall.  8  In  Memoriam,  I. 


476  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE   ' 

source  of  constant  delight  to  an  appreciative  ear.    We  may 
instance  such  lines  as, 

"  The  moan  of  doves  in  immemorial  elms, 
And  murmuring  of  innumerable  bees." 1 

When  the  thought  demands  abruptness  and  strength,  we 
find  those  qualities  in  his  verse :  — 

"  Flash  brand,  fall  battle  ax  upon  helm, 
Fall  battle  ax,  and  flash  brand!     Let  the  King  reign."  2 

Tennyson  is  something  more  than  a  mere  verbal  artist 
or  an  elegant  metrist.  He  can  express  noble  sentiment. 
After  reading  these  lines  from  The  Passing  of  Arthur,  let 
the  student  ask  himself  if  they  do  not  show  a  dignity  of 
thought  and  a  sublimity  of  feeling  which  are  lacking  in 
Pope's  work :  — 

"  More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore,  let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

Tennyson  is  further  unlike  the  poets  of  the  early  eigh- 
teenth century  in  his  desire  to  solve  the  problems  of  life 
and  to  find  rest  for  troubled  souls.  In  his  fondness  for 
nature,  he  shows  no  kinship  with  the  school  of  Pope. 
Tennyson's  nature  poetry  is  distinguished  for  accuracy  of 
observation,  for  pictorial  effects,  for  appeals  to  the  love  of 
sensuous  beauty,  and  often  for  subtle  comparisons  between 
natural  objects  and  man. 

1  The  Princess,  Canto  VII.  2  The  Coming  of  Arthur. 


SUMMARY  477 

It  is  useless  to  deny  that  Tennyson  has  marked  limita- 
tions. The  spiritual  interpretation  of  nature  in  Words- 
worth, the  rush  and  sweep  of  Byron  and  Shelley,  the 
spontaneous  flashes  of  Nature's  fire  in  Burns,  the  imperi- 
ous force  and  subtle  revelations  of  character  in  Browning, 
are  wanting  in  Tennyson.  He  has  not  the  highest  type 
of  creative  imagination.  He  often  delights  to  throw  into 
new  forms  the  thoughts  of  the  old  classical  writers.  He 
is  frequently  conventional.  He  has  no  new  message  for 
his  age,  and  he  is  more  often  its  mouthpiece  than  its  leader. 
His  sympathies  are  not  sufficiently  wide  for  him  to  feel 
deep  interest  in  the  various  social  movements  of  the  time. 

But  his  excellences  are  of  a  high  order.  Future  histo- 
rians of  English  literature  will  turn  to  him  for  the  most 
complete  poetic  exposition  of  the  thought  of  the  Victorian 
age,  with  its  scientific  spirit,  its  unrest,  and  feeling  of 
world  pain.  Aside  from  his  historical  significance,  he  will 
continue  to  hold  no  mean  place  in  English  poetic  litera- 
ture for  a  rare  combination  of  depth,  simplicity,  and 
beauty,  in  his  chosen  field  of  lyric  and  idyllic  poetry. 

SUMMARY 

The  literature  of  the  Victorian  age  shows  in  a  marked 
degree  the  influence  of  science.  No  preceding  age  can 
point  to  a  body  of  scientific  writers  like  Darwin,  Tyndall, 
Huxley,  and  Herbert  Spencer.  Evolution  introduced  the 
idea  of  orderly  development  in  every  phase  of  life.  All 
conceptions  of  human  progress,  of  the  growth  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  society,  underwent  a  change.  Men  no  longer 
thought  it  possible  for  society  to  experience  a  sudden,  radi- 
cal change,  such  as  was  hoped  for  from  the  French  Revo- 
lution. Evolution  set  men  to  considering  all  the  problems 


478  THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

of  existence,  here  and  hereafter,  from  a  new  point  of  view. 
The  greater  part  of  the  literature  is  permeated  with  a  new 
ethical  and  social  spirit,  with  a  sense  of  the  responsibilities 
of  life,  and  with  a  desire  to  aid  human  progress.  The 
tendency  to  analysis  and  dissection  is  strongly  marked. 

In  describing  the  prose  of  the  Victorian  age,  we  have 
considered  seven  great  writers:  Macaulay,  the  brilliant 
essayist  and  historian  of  the  material  advancement  of 
England;  Carlyle,  the  admirer  of  the  heroic  power  of 
great  men,  and  the  champion  of  the  spiritual  interpreta- 
tion of  life  in  both  philosophy  and  history ;  Ruskin,  the 
apostle  of  the  beautiful  and  of  more  ideal  relations  in 
social  life  ;  Arnold,  the  great  analytical  critic ;  Dickens, 
the  novelist  of  the  lower  classes,  who  is  noted  for  his 
humor,  optimism,  power  of  drawing  caricatures,  and  of 
charming  the  masses ;  Thackeray,  whose  novels  are  not 
surpassed  in  keen,  satiric  analysis  of  the  upper  classes  of 
society ;  and  George  Eliot,  whose  realistic  stories  of  mid- 
dle-class life  are  marked  by  high  ethical  ideals,  by  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  laws  of  heredity  and  development  in  the 
growth  of  character,  and  by  agnosticism  regarding  ulti- 
mate human  destiny. 

In  poetry,  the  age  is  best  represented  by  three  men : 
by  Arnold,  who  voices  the  feeling  of  doubt  and  unrest ; 
by  Browning,  who,  by  his  optimistic  philosophy,  leads  to 
impregnable  heights  of  faith,  who  analyzes  emotions  and 
notes  the  development  of  souls  as  they  struggle  against 
opposition  from  within  and  without  until  they  reach 
moments  of  supreme  victory  or  defeat;  by  Tennyson, 
whose  careful  art  mirrors  in  beautiful  verse  much  of  the 
thought  of  the  age,  the  influence  of  science,  the  unrest, 
the  desire  to  know  the  problems  of  the  future  as  well  as  to 
steal  occasional  glances  at  beauty  for  its  own  sake. 


CONCLUSION  479 

As  we  stand  on  the  threshold  of  the  twentieth  century, 
we  can  see  that  the  Victorian  age  has  struggled  to  find 
some  unitary  principle  which  would  reconcile  the  ap- 
parent contradictions  between  government  and  the  rights 
of  man,  duty  and  inclination,  good  and  evil,  life  and 
death.  The  age  has  passed  the  problem  unsolved  to 
the  twentieth  century,  but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  say 
that  the  preponderating  tone  in  Victorian  literature 
evidences  lack  of  faith  in  a  beneficent  solution.  Al- 
though Tennyson  may  say  :  — 

"  My  will  is  bondsman  to  the  dark ; 
I  sit  within  a  helmless  bark," 1 

yet  he  hears  at  the  end  a  clear  call  in  the  language  of 
faith,  a  tongue  that  has  since  the  earliest  times  been 
very  intelligible  to  the  Anglo-Saxon ;  and  in  the  beauti- 
ful lyric,  Crossing  the  Bar,  he  shows  that  he  awaits 
a  Pilot  to  direct  his  helmless  bark.  The  faith  of  even  the 
coming  centuries  may  be  strengthened  as  they  catch  the 
echoes  of  Browning's  refrain :  — 

"  God's  in  his  heaven  — 
All's  right  with  the  world."2 


CONCLUSION 

We  have  traced  the  major  points  in  the  development  of 
a  great  literature.  As  we  stop  at  the  threshold  of  the 
twentieth  century,  we  may  pause  and  for  a  moment  listen 
to  the  notes  of  a  younger  singer.  Let  us  ask  ourselves 
whether  they  indicate  a  peculiar  enduring  element  in  the 

!/»  Memoriam,  IV.  2  Pippa  Passes,  Part  I. 


480  THE   VICTORIAN   AGE 

songs  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  In  answering  this  question, 
it  will  benefit  each  one  to  formulate  clearly  what  he  con- 
siders the  elements  of  durability  in  poetry. 

"  Yet  do  the  songsmiths 
Quit  not  their  forges ; 
Still  on  life's  anvil 
Forge  they  the  rhyme. 

"  Lo,  with  the  ancient 
Roots  of  man's  nature 
Twines  the  eternal 
Passion  of  song. 

"  Ever  Love  fans  it, 
Ever  Life  feeds  it, 
Time  cannot  age  it ; 
Death  cannot  slay. 

u  God  on  his  throne  is 
Eldest  of  poets : 
Unto  his  measures 
Moveth  the  whole." 


REQUIRED  READINGS  FOR  CHAPTER  X 

HISTORICAL 

Gardiner,1  pp.  914-972 ;  Underwood-Guest,  pp.  557-592  ;  Coman 
and  Kendall's  History  of  England,  pp.  434-494 ;  Bright's  History  of 
England,  Period  IV. ;  Guerber,  pp.  320-338  ;  Oman's  England  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century;  Traill,  VI.,  111-690. 

LITERARY 

Macaulay.  —  Read  either  the  Essay  on  Milton  or  the  Essay  on  Addi- 
son  (Eclectic  English  Classics)  or  the  selections  in  Craik,  V.,  419-433. 
Read  History  of  England,  Chap.  IX.,  or  Craik,  V.,  436-441. 
What  are  some  of  the  qualities  that  cause  Macaulay's  writings  to 

1  For  full  titles,  see  list  at  end  of  Chap.  I. 


READING   REFERENCES  481 

outstrip  in  popularity  other  works  of  a  similar  nature  ?  What  qualities 
in  his  style  may  be  commended  to  young  writers  ?  What  are  his  special 
defects?  Contrast  his  narrative  style  in  Chap.  IX.  of  the  History  with 
Carlyle's  in  The  French  Revolution,  Vol.  I.,  Book  V.,  Chap.  VI. 

Carlyle.  —  Read  the  Essay  on  Robert  Burns  (Eclectic  English  Clas- 
sics') ;  Sartor  Resartus,  Book  III.,  Chap.  VI. ;  The  French  Revolution, 
Vol.  I.,  Book  V.,  Chap. VI.  Selections  may  be  found  in Craik,  V.,  381-389. 

What  marked  difference  in  manner  of  treatment  is  shown  in  Macau- 
lay's  Milton  or  Addison  and  Carlyle's  Burns'?  What  was  Carlyle's 
philosophy?  What  was  his  message  to  the  age ?  Point  out  differences 
between  the  humor  of  Carlyle,  of  Shakespeare,  and  of  Ben  Jonson. 
What  are  the  striking  peculiarities  of  Carlyle's  style? 

Ruskin.  —  In  Vol.  I.,  Part  II.,  of  Modern  Painters,  read  the  first 
part  of  Chap.  I.  of  Sec.  III.,  Chap.  I.  of  Sec.  IV.,  and  Chap.  I.  of 
Sec.  V.,  and  note  Ruskin's  surprising  accuracy  of  knowledge  in  dealing 
with  aspects  of  the  natural  world.  Stones  of  Venice,  Vol.  Ill .,  Chap.  IV., 
states  Ruskin's  theory  of  art  and  its  close  relation  to  morality.  Excel- 
lent selections  from  the  various  works  of  Ruskin  will  be  found  in  An 
Introduction  to  the  Writings  of  John  Ruskin,  by  Vida  D.  Scudder  (Sib- 
ley  and  Ducker's  Students'1  Series  of  English  Classics,  259  pp.,  50  cents) . 

How  do  Ruskin's  descriptions  rank  with  those  of  other  English  prose 
writers?  What  are  the  marked  qualities  of  his  style?  Compare  his 
style  with  that  of  Macaulay  and  Carlyle.  What  is  Ruskin's  message  to 
the  age?  Is  his  philosophy  in  accord  with  Macaulay's? 

Arnold.  —  Read  Dover  Beach,  Memorial  Verses,  Stanzas  in  Memory 
of  the  Author  of  "  Obermann  "  (Crowell's  Students'1  Edition}. 

Is  Arnold  the  poet'  of  exuberant  fancy  or  of  reflection?  How  does 
his  poetry  show  one  phase  of  nineteenth  century  thought  ? 

Read  in  Craik,  V.,  705-721,  the  selections  from  the  Essays  in 
Criticism,  Culture  and  Anarchy,  and  The  Study  of  Celtic  Literature, 
or  Arnold's  Introduction  to  Ward's  English  Poets,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  xvii.-xlvii. 

Is  Arnold's  attitude  in  criticism  that  of  the  controversialist  or  the 
calm  seeker  after  truth?  Contrast  his  style  of  criticism  with  Ruskin's. 
What  are  the  main  advantages  in  a  prose  style  like  Arnold's  ? 

Dickens.  —  Read  in  Craik,  V.,  "Mr.  Pickwick  on  the  Ice,"  577~583< 
and  "  Christmas  at  the  Cratchits'."  587-590.  The  first  works  of  Dickens 
to  be  read  are  Pickwick  Papers,  A  Christmas  Carol,  and  David 
Copperfield. 

Is  there  a  well-developed  plot  in  David  Copperfield f  Are  the  char- 
acters natural  or  overdrawn  ?  Would  you  like  them  for  friends  ?  Is 


482  THE  VICTORIAN   AGE 

the  early  life  of  the  hero  more  strongly  presented  than  his  later  life  ? 
Select  a  passage  of  mingled  pathos  and  humor. 

Thackeray.  —  Read  Henry  Esmond  and  The  English  Httmorists. 
In  Craik,  V.,  567-572,  there  are  two  fairly  good  specimens  from  these 
works. 

Contrast  the  manner  of  treatment  in  Thackeray's  historical  novel, 
Henry  Esmond,  and  in  Scott's  historical  romance,  Ivanhoe.  Thackeray 
says:  "The  best  humor  is  that  which  contains  most  humanity  —  that 
which  is  flavored  throughout  with  tenderness  and  kindness."  Would 
this  serve  as  a  definition  of  Thackeray's  own  style  of  humor?  State 
definitely  how  he  differs  from  Dickens  in  portraying  character.  Of 
all  the  prose  authors  thus  far  read,  whose  style  merits  most  com- 
mendation from  most  points  of  view? 

George  Eliot.  —  Read  Silas  Marner  (Eclectic  English  Classics),  and 
selections  in  Craik,  V.,  671-677. 

In  what  does  the  chief  strength  of  Silas  Marner  consist,  —  in  the 
plot,  the  characters,  or  the  descriptions?  Does  the  ethical  purpose  of 
this  novel  grow  naturally  out  of  the  story?  Is  the  inner  life  or  only 
the  outward  appearance  of  the  characters  revealed  ?  Wherein  do  they 
show  growth  ? 

Browning.  —  Read  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra,  Abt  Vogler,  Home  Thoughts 
from  Abroad,  Prospice,  which  will  be  found  in  French's  Selections  from 
Browning  (A.  Lovell  and  Co.). 

Define  Browning's  creed  as  found  in  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra.  Do  these 
poems  exhibit  any  metrical  skill  ?  Compare  Prospice  with  Tennyson's 
Crossing  the  Bar.  What  qualities  in  Browning  entitle  him  to  be  ranked 
as  a  great  poet  ? 

Tennyson.  —  Read  The  Poet,  The  Palace  of  Art,  Ulysses,  Maud, 
XVIII.  and  XXII.,  In  Memoriam,  XLI.,  LIV.-LVII.,  and  CXXXI., 
Crossing  the  Bar,  and,  from  The  Idylls  of  the  King,  read  "The  Passing 
of  Arthur"  (Palgrave's  edition  of  Tennyson's  Lyrical  Poems'). 

In  The  Palace  of  Art,  study  carefully  the  stanzas  from  XIV.  to  XXIII., 
which  are  illustrative  of  Tennyson's  characteristic  style  of  description. 
Compare  Locksley  Hall  with  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After,  and  note 
the  difference  in  thought  and  metrical  form.  Does  the  later  poem 
show  a  gain  over  the  earlier?  Compare  Tennyson's  nature  poetry  with 
that  of  Keats  and  Wordsworth.  To  what  is  chiefly  due  the  pleasure 
in  reading  Tennyson's  poetry :  to  the  imagery,  form,  meter,  thought  ? 
What  idea  of  his  faith  do  you  gain  from  In  Memoriam  and  The  Passing 
of  Arthur?  In  what  is  Tennyson  the  poetic  exponent  of  the  age? 


.     READING   REFERENCES  483 

WORKS  FOR  CONSULTATION  AND  FURTHER  STUDY 
(OPTIONAL) 

McCarthy's  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 

Walker's  The  Age  of  Tennyson  and  The  Greater  Victorian  Poets. 

Frederic  Harrison's  Early  Victorian  Literature. 

Saintsbury's  A  History  of  Nineteenth  Century  Literature. 

Oliphant's  The  Victorian  Age  of  English  Literature. 

Morley's  Literature  in  the  Age  of  Victoria. 

Craik's  English  Prose  Selections,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  373-771. 

Gosse's  Modern  English  Literature,  pp.  334-385. 

Scudder's  Social  Ideals  in  English  Letters,  pp.  114-318. 

Stedman's  Victorian  Poets. 

Victorian  Literature  in  Dowden's  Transcripts  and  Studies. 

The  Scientific  Movement  and  Literature,  Mr.  Tennyson  and  Mr. 
Browning,  and  George  Eliot  in  Dowden's  Studies  in  Literature. 

Symonds's  Elizabethan  and  Victorian  Literature  in  Fortnightly  Re- 
view, Vol.  51,  or  Living  Age,  Vol.  180. 

Myers's  Modern  Poets  and  the  Meaning  of  Life  in  Nineteenth  Cen~ 
tury,  Vol.  33. 

Bagehot's  Literary  Studies.  (Thackeray,  Dickens,  Macaulay,  Ten- 
nyson, and  Browning.) 

Bayne's  Lessons  from  My  Masters.    (Carlyle,  Tennyson,  and  Ruskin.) 

Zapp's  Three  Great  Teachers  of  Our  Time.  (Carlyle,  Tennyson, 
and  Ruskin.) 

Hutton's  Essays,  Theological  and  Literary.  (Browning,  Arnold, 
and  Tennyson.) 

Hutton's  Modern  Guides  of  English  Thought  in  Matters  of  Faith. 
(Carlyle,  Arnold,  and  George  Eliot.) 

Cooke's  Poets  and  Problems.     (Ruskin,  Browning,  and  Tennyson.) 

Masson's  British  Novelists  and  Their  Styles.  (Thackeray  and 
Dickens.) 

Anne  Thackeray  Ritchie's  Records  of  Tennyson,  Ruskin,  and 
Browning. 

Minto's  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature.  (Macaulay  and  Carlyle.) 

Trevelyan's  Life  and  Letters  of  Macaulay. 

Morrison's  Life  of  Macaulay. 

Froude's  Thomas  Carlyle. 

Garnett's  Life  of  Carlyle. 


484  THE   VICTORIAN  AGE 

Nichol's  Life  of  Carlyle. 

Collingwood's  The  Life  and  Works  of  John  Ruskin. 

Mather's  John  Ruskin:  His  Life  and  Teachings. 

Ruskin's  Prater  it  a :  Scenes  of  My  Past  Life, 

Waldstein's  The  Work  of  John  Ruskin:  fts  Influence  upon  Modern 
Thought  and  Life. 

Scudder's  An  Introduction  to  the  Writings  of  John  Ruskin. 

Saintsbury's  Matthew  Arnold. 

Introduction  to  Gates's  Prose  Selections  from  Matthew  Arnold. 

Arnold's  Letters,  edited  by  Russell. 

Swinburne's  Essays  and  Studies.     (Matthew  Arnold.) 

Foster's  The  Life  of  Charles  Dickens. 

Ward's  Life  of  Dickens. 

Marzials's  Life  of  Dickens. 

Trollope's  Life  of  Thackeray. 

Merivale  and  Marzials's  Life  of  Thackeray. 

Cross's  George  Eliofs  Life,  as  Related  in  Her  Letters  and  Journal. 

Oscar  Browning's  Life  of  George  Eliot. 

Cooke's  George  Eliot :  A  Critical  Study  of  Her  Life,  Writings,  and 
Philosophy. 

Blind's  George  Eliot. 

Brown's  The  Ethics  of  George  Eliofs  Works. 

Sharp's  Life  of  Browning. 

Orr's  Life  and  Letters  of  Browning. 

Orr's  A  Handbook  to  the  Works  of  Robert  Browning. 

Symon's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Browning. 

Corson's  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Robert  Browning's  Poetry. 

Berdoe's  Browning^s  Message  to  His  Times. 

Berdoe's  The  Browning  Cyclopedia. 

Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson,  A  Memoir,  by  his  son. 

Waugh's  Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson :  A  Study  of  His  Life  and  Work. 

Ainger's  Tennyson,  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography .  (The 
best  short  life.) 

Brooke's  Tennyson :  His  Art  and  Relation  to  Modern  Life. 

Van  Dyke's  The  Poetry  of  Tennyson. 

Luce's  Handbook  to  the  Works  of  Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson. 


APPENDIX 

SUPPLEMENTARY  LIST  OF  MINOR  AUTHORS  AND  THEIR 
CHIEF  WORKS 

1400-1558 

John  Lydgate  (1370 7-1451  ?)  :  Falls  of  Princes.  Thomas 
Occleve  (13  70  7-1450?)  :  Mother  of  God;  Go vernail  of  Princes. 
James  I.  of  Scotland  (1394-1437)  :  The  King's  Quair.  Sir  John 
Fortescue  (1394?-! 4 76?)  :  Difference  between  an  Absolute  and 
Limited  Monarchy.  The  Pas  ton  Letters  (1422-1509).  Stephen 
Hawes  (d.  1523?)  :  Pastime  of  Pleasure.  John  Skelton  (1460?— 
1529)  :  Bowge  of  Court ;  Philip  Sparrow.  Alex.  Barclay  (1475  ?- 
1552)  :  Ship  of  Fools.  Sir  Thomas  More  (1478-1535)  :  Utopia; 
History  of  Edward  V.  and  Richard  III.  Hugh  Latimer  (1485  ?- 
1555)  :  Sermon  on  the  Ploughers.  Sir  David  Lindsay  (1490- 
1555)  :  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates. 

1558-1603 

Prose  Writers.  —  Roger  Ascham  (1515-1568)  :  The  Scholemas- 
ter.  Raphael  Holinshed  (d.  1580?)  :  Chronicles  of  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland.  John  Stow  (1525?-! 605)  :  Survey  of 
London.  Sir  Thomas  North  (1535  ?-i6oi  ?)  :  Translation  of 
Plutarch's  Lives.  Richard  Hakluyt  (1552  ?-i6i6)  :  Voyages. 
George  Puttenham  (d.  1590?)  :  Art  of  English  Poesie.  Stephen 
Gosson  (1555-1624)  :  The  School  of  Abuse. 

Poets  and  Dramatists.  —  George  Gascoigne  (1525  ?-i577)  \-The 
SteeleGlas.  John  Lyly  (i554?-i6o6)  :  Alexander  and  Campaspe 
(prose.  For  his  Enphues,  see  p.  117).  Thomas  Kyd  (1557?- 
1595?)  :  The  Spanish  Tragedy.  Thomas  Lodge  (i558?-i625)  : 
Phillis  (for  his  novel,  see  p.  276) .  William  Warner  (1558  ?-i 609)  : 

HAL.    ENG.    LIT. —  3!  485 


486  APPENDIX 

Albion's  England.  George  Peele  (1558?-! 597?)  :  David  and 
Bethsabe.  George  Chapman  (1559?-! 634)  :  Translation  of 
Homer.  Robert  Greene  (15 60?- 1592)  :  The  Honourable  His- 
tory of  Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay.  Thomas  Dekker  (1570?- 
1641?):  Old  Fortunatus.  John  Donne  (1573-1631):  Poems. 
Cyril  Tourneur  (1575  ?-i6 26)  :  The  Revenger's  Tragedy.  Thomas 
Heywood  (d.  1650?)  :  A  Woman  Killed  with  Kindness.  John 
Marston  (i575?-i634)  :  Antonio  and Mellida. 

1603-1660 

Prose  Writers.  —  Robert  Burton  (1577-1640)  :  The  Anatomy 
of  Alelancholy.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  (1605-1682)  :  Religio  Medici ; 
Urn  Burial.  Richard  Baxter  (1615-1691)  :  The  Saints'  Everlast- 
ing Rest.  John  Evelyn  (1620-1706)  :  Diary  (begins  1641,  ends 
1697). 

Poets  and  Dramatists. — Thomas  Middleton  (i57o?-i627)  : 
The  Changeling.  Phineas  Fletcher  (1582-1650?)  :  The  Purple 
Island.  Philip  Massinger  (1583-1640)  :  A  New  Way  to  Pay  Old 
Debts.  William  Drummond  (1585-1649)  :  Sonnets;  TheCypresse 
Grove  (prose).  Giles  Fletcher  (i588?-i623)  :  Christ's  Victory 
and  Triumph.  George  Wither  (1588-1667)  :  Juvenilia.  George 
Herbert  (1593-1633)  :  The  Temple.  James  Shirley  (1596-1666)  : 
The  Traitor.  Sir  William  Davenant  (1606-1668)  :  Gondibert. 
Edmund  Waller  (1606-1687):  Poems;  Song—  "Go,  lovely 
Rose."  Richard  Crashavv  (i6i3?-i649?)  :  Steps  to  the  Temple; 
The  Delights  of  the  Muses.  Sir  John  Denham  (1615-1669)  : 
Cooper's  Hill.  Abraham  Cowley  (1618-1667)  :  Anacreontiques. 
Andrew  Marvell  (1621-1678)  :  The  Garden. 

1660-1700 

Prose  Writers.  —Sir  William  Temple  (1628-1699):  Essays. 
Isaac  Barrow  (1630-1677)  :  Sermons.  John  Tillotson  (1630- 
1694)  :  Sermons.  Samuel  Pepys  (1633-1703)  :  Diary  (1660  to 
1669).  Rol >ert South  (1634-1716):  Sermons.  AphraBehn  (1640- 
1689)  :  Oroonoko.  Jeremy  Collier  (1650-1726)  :  Short  View  of 


MINOR  AUTHORS   AND   THEIR   CHIEF   WORKS         487 

the  Immorality  and  Profaneness  of  the  Stage.     Richard  Bentley 
(1662-1742)  :  Epistles  of  Phalaris. 

Dramatists  of  the  Restoration.  —  George  Etherege  (1635?- 
1691?)  :  The  Man  of  Mode.  William  Wycherley  (1640-1715)  : 
The  Plain  Dealer.  Thomas  Shadwell  (1642  ?— 1692)  :  Epsom 
Wells.  Thomas  Otway  (1652-1685)  :  Venice  Preserved.  John 
Vanbrugh  (1666 7-1726)  :  The  Confederacy.  William  Congreve 
(1670-1729)  :  Love  for  Love.  Golley  Gibber  (1671-1757)  : 
The  Careless  Husband.  George  Farquhar  (1678-1707)  :  The 
Beaux'  Stratagem. 

1700-1740 

Prose  Writers.  —  Gilbert  Burnet  (1643-1715)  :  History  of  My 
Own  Time.  Francis  Atterbury  (1662-1732)  :  Sermons.  John 
Arbuthnot  (1667-1735)  ;  The  History  of  John  Bull.  Lord 
Bolingbroke  (1678-1751)  :  Letter  to  Sir  William  Windham. 
Bishop  Berkeley  (1685-1753)  :  Alciphron  or  the  Minute  Philoso- 
pher. Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  (1689-1762)  :  Letters. 
Bishop  Butler  (1692-1752)  :  Analogy  of  Natural  and  Revealed 
Religion.  William  Warburton  (1698-1779)  :  The  Divine  Legation 
of  Moses. 

Poets.  —  Matthew  Prior  (1664-1721)  :  Shorter  Poems.  Isaac 
Watts  (1674-1748)  :  Psalms  and  Hymns.  Thomas  Parnell  (1679— 
1718):  The  Night-Piece  on  Death;  The  Hermit.  John  Gay 
(1685-1732)  :  Fables ;  Beggar's  Opera.  Allan  Ramsay  (1686— 
1758)  :  The  Gentle  Shepherd. 

1740-1780 

Prose  Writers.  —  Gilbert  White  (1720-1793):  Natural  His- 
tory of  Selborne.  William  Robertson  (1721-1793)  :  History  of 
the  Reign  of  Charles  V.  Adam  Smith  (1723-1790)  :  Wealth  of 
Nations.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  (1723-1792)  :  Discourses  on 
Painting.  Thomas  Warton  (1728-1790)  :  History  of  English 
Poetry.  Sir  Philip  Francis  (1740-1818):  Letters  of  Junius. 
Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  (1751-1816)  :  The  Rivals ;  The  School 
for  Scandal.  Fanny  Burney  (1752-1840)  :  Evelina. 


488  APPENDIX 

Poets.  —  Edward  Young  (1681-1765)  :  Night  Thoughts.  Charles 
Wesley  (1708-1788):  Hymns.  Mark  Akenside  (1721-1770): 
Pleasures  of  Imagination.  James  Beattie  (1735-1803)  :  The 
Minstrel.  Robert  Fergusson  (1750-1774)  :  Braid  Claith;  Ode 
to  the  Gowdspink.  Thomas  Chatterton  (1752-1770)  :  Rowley 
Poems. 

1780-1837 

Philosophers.  —  William  Paley  (1743-1805)  :  Natural  Theol- 
ogy. Jeremy  Bentham  (1748-1832)  :  Principles  of  Morals  and 
Legislation.  William  Godwin  (1756-1836)  :  Inquiry  concerning 
Political  Justice.  Thomas  Robert  Malthus  (1766-1834)  :  Essay 
on  the  Principle  of  Population.  David  Ricardo  (1772-1823): 
Principles  of  Political  Economy.  James  Mill  (1773-1836)  : 
Analysis  of  the  Human  Mind. 

Historians.  —  John  Lingard  (1771-1851)  :  History  of  England. 
Henry  Hallam  (1777-1859)  :  Constitutional  History  of  England. 
Sir  William  Napier  (1785-1860)  :  History  of  the  Peninsular  War. 

Essayists.  —  William  Cobbett  (1762-1835)  :  Rural  Rides  in 
England.  Sydney  Smith  (1771-1845)  :  Letters  of  Peter  Ply mley. 
Francis  Jeffrey  (1773-1850)  :  Essays.  William  Hazlitt  (1778- 
1830)  :  Lectures  on  the  English  Poets.  Leigh  Hunt  (1784-1859)  : 
Essays.  John  Wilson  (1785-1854):  Noctes  Ambrosiance.  John 
Gibson  Lockhart  (1794-1854)  :  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

Novelists  and  Dramatists.  —  William  Beckford  (1759-1844): 
Vathek.  Ann  Radcliffe  (1764-1822)  :  The  Mysteries  of  Udolpho. 
Maria  Edgeworth  (1767-1849)  :  Castle  Rackrent.  Jane  Porter 
(1776-1850)  :  Scottish  Chiefs.  James  Sheridan  Knowles  (1784- 
1862)  :  The  Hunchback;  The  Love  Chase.  Thomas  Love  Pea- 
cock (1785-1866)  :  Nightmare  Abbey.  Mary  Russell  Mitford 
(1787-1855)  :  Our  Village. 

Poets.  —  George  Crabbe  (1754-1832)  :  The  Borough.  William 
Blake  (1757-1827)  :  Poetical  Sketches ;  Songs  of  Innocence. 
Joanna  Baillie  (1762-1851)  :  Poems.  James  Hogg  (1770-1835)  : 
Queen's  Wake.  Thomas  Campbell  (1777-1844)  :  The  Pleasures 
of  Hope.  Thomas  Moore  (1779-1852):  Irish  Melodies;  Lalla 


MINOR  AUTHORS  AND  THEIR  CHIEF  WORKS         489 

Rookh.  Ebenezer  Elliott  (1781-1849)  :  Corn-Law  Rhymes. 
Bryan  W.  Procter  (1787-1874)  :  English  Songs.  John  Keble 
(1792-1866)  :  The  Christian  Year.  Felicia  Hemans  (1793- 
1835)  :  Songs  of  the  Affections.  Thomas  Hood  (1799—1845)  : 
The  Song  of  the  Shirt;  The  Bridge  of  Sighs.  Winthrop  Praed 
(1802-1839):  The  Season  ;  The  Letter  of  Advice.  Thomas  Bed- 
does  (1803-1849)  :  Lyrics  from  Death's  Jest  Book  and  from  The 
Bride's  Tragedy. 

1837- 

Philosophers  and  Scientists.  —  Sir  William  Hamilton  (1788- 
1856)  :  Lectures  on  Metaphysics  and  Logic.  Michael  Faraday 
(1791-1867)  :  Experimental  Researches.  Sir  Charles  Lyell  (179 7— 
1875)  :  Principles  of  Geology;  Antiquity  of  Man.  John  Henry 
Newman  (1801—1890)  :  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua.  John  Stuart  Mill 
(1806-1873):  System  of  Logic ;  Utilitarianism.  George  Henry 
Lewes  (1817-1878)  :  A  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy; 
Problems  of  Life  and  Mind.  Sir  Henry  Maine  (1822-1888): 
Ancient  Law  ;  Village  Communities.  George  J.  Romanes  (1848- 
1894)  :  Mental  Evolution  in  Animals  and  Man. 

Historians.  —  Henry  Hart  Milman  (1791-1868)  :  History  of 
Latin  Christianity  down  to  the  Death  of  Pope  Nicholas  V.  George 
Grote  (1794-1871)  :  History  of  Greece.  James  Anthony  Froude 
(1818-1894)  :  History  of  England  from  the  Fall  of  Wolsey  to  the 
Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada.  Henry  Thomas  Buckle  (1821- 
1862)  :  History  of  Civilization.  Edward  Augustus  Freeman  (1823- 
1892)  :  The  History  of  the  Norman  Conquest.  William  Stubbs 
(1825-  ):  The  Constitutional  History  of  England  in  its  Origin 
and  Development.  Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner  (1829-  )  :  His- 
tory of  England  from  the  Accession  of  James  I.  to  the  Outbreak  of 
Civil  War,  1603-1642  ;  History  of  the  Great  Civil  War,  1642- 
1649;  History  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Protectorate,  1649- 
1660.  John  Richard  Green  (1837-1883)  :  A  Short  History  of  the 
English  People.  William  Edward  Hartpole  Lecky  (1838-  )  : 
History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Critics  and  Essayists  —  Walter  Bagehot  (1826-1877)  :  Physics 


49O  APPENDIX 

and  Politics.  Leslie  Stephen  (1832-  )  :  Hours  in  a  Library. 
Algernon  Charles  Swinburne  (1837-  )  :  Essays  and  Studies ; 
Miscellanies.  Walter  Pater  (1839-1894)  :  Studies  in  the  History 
of  the  Renaissance;  Marius  the  Epicurean.  John  Addington 
Symonds  (1840-1893)  :  The  History  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy. 

Novelists. —  Edward  Bulwer,  Lord  Lytton  (1803-1873)  :  Last 
Days  of  Pompeii.  Charles  Lever  (1806-1872)  :  Charles  O' Mai- 
ley.  Elizabeth  C.  Gaskell  (1810-1865)  :  Cranford.  Charles 
Reade  (1814-1884):  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth.  Anthony 
Trollope  (1815-1882)  :  Last  Chronicle  of  Barset.  Charlotte 
Bront^  (1816-1855)  :  Jane  Eyre.  Charles  Kingsley(  1819-1 8  75)  : 
Hypatia;  Westward  ho !  Wilkie  Collins  (1824-1889):  The 
Moonstone.  Richard  D.  Blackmore  (1825-1900)  :  Lorna  Doone. 
Dinah  Maria  Craik  (1826-1887)  :  John  Halifax,  Gentleman. 
George  Meredith  (1828-  )  :  Diana  of  the  Crossways ;  The 
Egoist;  The  Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel.  Thomas  Hardy  (1840- 
)  :  Far  from  the  Madding  Crowd.  William  Black  (1841- 
1898)  :  A  Daughter of  Heth.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  (1850-1 894)  : 
David  Balfour.  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward  (1851-  )  :  Robert 
Ehmere.  Hall  Caine  (1853-  ):  The  Manxman.  Rudyard 
Kipling  (1865-  )  :  Jungle  Books. 

Poets.  —  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  (1809-1861):  Sonnets 
from  the  Portuguese.  Edward  Fitzgerald  (1809-1883)  :  Rubaiyat 
of  Omar  Khayyam  (translation).  Arthur  Hugh  Clough  (1819- 
1861)  :  Qua  Cursum  Ventus ;  Easter  Day,  Naples.  Dante 
Gabriel  Rossetti  (1828-1882)  :  The  King's  Tragedy;  The  Blessed 
Damozel;  Sonnets.  Christina  Rossetti  (1830-1894)  :  The  Goblin 
Market;  Time  Flies.  Jean  Ingelow  (1830-1897)  :  Divided; 
The  High  Tide  on  the  Coast  of  Lincolnshire.  Edwin  Arnold 
(1832-  ):  The  Light  of  Asia.  William  Morris  (1834-1896)  : 
The  Earthly  Paradise.  Alfred  Austin  (1835-  )  :  Lyrics. 
Algernon  Charles  Swinburne  (1837-  ):  Atalanta  in  Calydon; 
The  Garden  of  Proserpine.  William  Watson  (1858-  ):  Words- 
worth's Grave  and  Other  Poems  ;  England  my  Mother.  Rudyard 
Kipling  (1865-  )  :  The  Seven  Seas ;  The  Recessional. 


INDEX 


Diacritic  marks.— VOWELS  :  a  in  late,  &  in  fat,  a  in  care,  a  in  far,  a  in  fall ;  e  In  me, 
6  in  mSt,  e.  in  veil,  e  in  term,  e  in  there ;  i  in  fine,  I  in  tTn,  i  in  police  ;  6  in  note,  S  in  u6t 
d  in  fdr,  9  in  wplf ;  u  in  tune,  u  in  nut,  u  in  rude,  u  in  full ;  y  in  hymn.  CONSONANTS  : 
?  in  cent,  «  iu  ean  ;  g  in  gem,  g  in  get ;  §  in  hag  ;  tft  in  witti. 


PAGE 

Abbotsford 327 

Ab'sa  lorn  and  A-chit'o-phel  ,  220,  221,  230 
Abt  Vo-jler  (apt  fo'glgr)  ...  455,  461 
Aotors  in  early  drama  .  136-138,  154,  175 

Adam  Bede 447 

Addison,  Joseph    .     237,  245-252,  259,  333 

life  of 245-248 

required  readings  iu       260 

works  of 248-252 

Ad-o-na'is 364,  382,  469 

Advancement  of  Learning     .     ,    123, 124 

.Elf'ric 43 

Alchemist,  The     ...   189,  171,  181,  284 

Aldwinkle 217 

Aldworth 464 

Alfred 39,  40,  45 

All  for  Love 221 

Alliteration 16, 17 

Ancient  Mariner  .    .    .   309.  347,  348,  351 

An'cren  Riwle  (rool) 60,  84 

Andrea  (an-dra'ya)  del  Sar"to     .    .    .  455 

An-dre-as  (-dr&-) 32,  35 

Anglo  Saxon  Chronicle  ....  40^2,  45 
Anglo-Saxon   vocabulary,   percentage 
of,  in  literature       .    .    54,  55,  64,  291 

Anslo-Saxons 12,  13 

fondness  of,  for  the  sea  .      21,  22,  35,  36 
language  of  the      .     .     .      14-17,   49-fil 

mind,  soinher  cast  of 14 

poetry  of  the 11-38,  42-45 

prose  of  the 38-43,  45 

religion  of  the 13,  14 

Apologie  for  Poetrie 118,178 

Arabian  Nights 236,  345 

Arbury 444 

Ar'buth-not,  John 487 


PAGE 

Arcadia  (Sidney's)    .    .  118,  178,  278,  302 
Ar-e-o-pa-yiti-ca  ....      198,  211,  220 

Ar-ma'dn,  Spanish 108 

Arnold,  E  Iwiii 490 

Arnold,  Matthew,  92,  385,  399, 424-430, 478 

life  of 424,  426 

quoted 237,  272,  £44 

required  readings  in 481 

works  of 425-430 

Arnold,  Thomas 424 

Arnold,  Thomas,  quoted 24 

Arthur,  King 91,  92,  201 

As'eham,  Roger 105,  485 

As  You  Like  It     .     143,  157,  153,  160,  276 

Atterbury,  Francis 487 

Aurewj-zebe' 222 

Austen,  Jane    ....    333-3-5,  3SO,  381 

Austin,  Alfred 490 

Authorities.    See  end  of  each  chapter. 

Au-tol'y-cus 94 

Ayr 317 

Bacon,  Francis     ....       117,  120-125 

life  of 123-12} 

required  readings  in 1"8 

works  of .     122-1.5 

Bagehot  (bSj'ot),  Walter 489 

Baillie,  Joanna 488 

Ballads 94,  95,  100,  101 

Barclay,  Alex 485 

Barrow,  Isaac 486 

Baxter,  Richard 486 

Beat'tle,  James 488 

Beau'mout  (bo'-),  Francis      .  191, 192,  210 

Becket,  Thomas  ;\ 76,  472 

Beckford,  William 488 


491 


492 


INDEX 


PAOK 

Beddoes,  Thomas 489 

Bede 27,39 

Ecclesiastical  History  of,  27, 28, 39,  40, 41 

BeJford  Jail 225 

Belin,  Mrs.  Aphra 277,  486 

Bentham,  Jeremy 311,  488 

Bentley,  Richard 487 

Beowulf  (ba'o-wulf)  .  23-26,  36,  37,  44 
Berke'ley,  George  .  .  .  288, 303,  487 
SiUe,  influence  of  .  66,  99,  186,  229,  293 
Bibliography.  See  end  of  each  chapter. 

Bickerstaff,  Isaac 244,  248 

Bilton 248 

Binfleld 253,  255 

Bi-o-graph'i-a  Lit-e-rd'ri-a    ....  350 

Black,  William 490 

Blackmore,  Richard  D 490 

Blake,  William 305, 488 

Blank  verse 99,  142,  146,  265 

Boc-cac'cio  (-kat'cho) 76,  80 

Boileau  (l)wa-lo') 235 

Bol'ing-broke,  Lord 487 

Bogwell,  James     .     297,  298,  299,  303,  402 

Bourn 63 

Bron't<5,  Charlotte 490 

Brooke,  Stopford,  quoted,  81,  33,  35, 37, 98 
Brown,  Charles  Brockden  ....  269 

Browne,  Sir  Thomas 486 

Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett      .   160,  452, 

453,  490. 

Browning,  Robert,    385,  397,  399,  450-461, 
464,  477,  478. 

faith  of 458,  459,  479 

his  idea  of  growth,  389,  454,  456,  457,  458 

life  of 450-454 

required  readings  in 482 

works  of 464-461 

Bru'ndn-byrh 34 

Brut  (Layamon's)      ....       53,  58,  92 

Buckle,  Henry  Thomas 489 

Bulwer,  Edward •.    .    .  490 

Bunyan,  John  .    .    .    .    223-229,230,385 

life  of 223-226 

required  readings  in 230 

works  of 226-229 

Burke,  Edmund    .     291-293,  297,  303,  385 

Btir'uet,  Gilbert 487 

Burney,  Fanny 487 

Burns,  Robert,     309,  310,  317-324, 329,  379 
compared  with   Elizabethans,  321,  3-22 

life  of 317-320 

poetic  creed  of 321 

required  readings  in       380 

works  of 821-324 

Burton,  Robert 486 


PAGE 

Butler,  Bishop 487 

Butler,  Samuel 213,  230 

Byron,  Lord,  134,  268,  307, 338,  352-361,  379 
compared   with   Wordsworth    and 

Coleridge 3"9 

life  of 352-354 

required  readings  in       382 

works  of 355-361 

Caed'mon 26-28,  38 

compared  with  Milton   .    .    .    .  29,  30 
€aed-mo'ni-an  Cycle      .    .      26-31,  34,  44 

Caine,  Hall 490 

Cam'bridge 126,  197,  201,  217 

337,  346,  353,  401,  438. 
Campbell  (c&m'el),  Thomas  ....  488 

Canterbury       75,  76, 144 

Canterbury  Tales 75-80 

Ca-rew',  Thomas 193,  211 

Car-lyle',  Thomas      .    .  291,  330,  385,  397, 
406-415,  478. 

as  a  religious  teacher 395 

figurative  language  of     ...    291,  415 

life  of 406-409 

required  readings  in 481 

works  of 409-416 

CaVo-Hne  poets 193-195,  211 

Carols,  fifteenth  century 95 

Castlf.  of  0-trorito     .    .  268,  269,  301,  302 

Cavalier  poets 193-195,  211 

Caxton,  William 56,  96 

Celtic  imagery 37,  38,  45 

Cer-v5n'te§ 276 

Chapman,  George      .  112,  307  (note),  486 
Character,  growth  of,  143,  389, 390,  449, 464 

Chatterton,  Thomas 488 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  70-83,  84,  85, 86,  87,  386 

an  objective  poet 130,  131 

authorities  on 88 

life  of 70-78 

quoted 85,  91, 131 

required  readings  in 86,  87 

works  of 73-83 

Chester  Miracle  plays  ....    135,  179 

Childe  Harold 853,  356,  257 

Chivalry,  effect  of,  on  literature    .    .    83 

Christ 31 

Chris'ta-bel 848,349 

Qiblter,  Colley 487 

Clat'en-don,  Lord 188 

Clarista  f/arloioe. 282 

Classic  School  .    .    235,  236,  259,  271,  298, 
299,  306,  30). 

Cleo'bur-y  Mortimer 67 

Clive,  Robert 262 


INDEX 


493 


PAGE 

Cloud,  The   .    . 364,366 

Clough  (cluf),  Arthur  Hugh  ....  490 

Cobbett,  William 488 

Cockermouth 335 

Cole'ridge,  Samuel  Taylor     .    .  180,  307, 
309,  312,  313,  345-351,  406. 

life  of 345-347 

on  pints 284 

required  readings  in  ....    381,  382 

works  of 347-361 

Collier,  Jeremy 486 

Collins,  Wilkie 480 

Collius,  William  ....  270,  272,  301 
Complete  Angler  ....  189,  209,  211 
Compounds,  self-explaining  ....  51 

Co'mus 200,  208,  210,  211 

Conduct  of  the  Understanding  .   214,  215 

Con-fes'sio  A-man'tis 70,  85 

Confessions  of  an  Opium-Eater  .    375,  376 

Congreve,  William 487 

Con'is-ton  Water 419 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore 332 

Cotter's  Saturday  Night  .  .  .  318, 380 
Couplets,  rhyming  .  .  .  216,  234,  258 

Cpv'en-try 136, 148 

Coventry  Miracle  plays     .    .    .    135,  136 

Cowley,  Abraham 486 

Cowper,  William  .    .    .    313-317, 340, 379 

life  of 313-315 

required  readings  in 380 

works  of 315-317 

Crabbe,  George 306,  488 

Crai-gen-put'tock 408 

Craik,  Dinah  Maria 490 

Crash'aw,  Richard 195,  486 

Crossing  the  Bar 396,  479 

€yn'e-wulf 31 

Cynewulf  Cycle 31-33,  44 

Darwin,  Charles   ...  385,  387,  392,  477 

DSv'en-ant,  Sir  William 486 

Dwid  Copperfield  .  .  435,  436,  437,  481 
Da-foe',  Daniel ....  237,  277-279,  302 

Dekker,  Thomas 112,  486 

Deuhani,  Sir  John 486 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  155,  312,  313,  373-379 

life  of 373-375 

required  readings  in 382 

works  of 375-379 

Deserted  Village,  The    ....     273,  302 

Dialects,  English       56 

Dickens,  Charles  .    .    .  286,  385,  396,  430- 
437,  442,  478. 

a  master  of  caricature 436 

a  portrayer  of  child  life  .    .    .    432,  435 


PAGE 
Dickens,  Charles,  required  readings  in,  481 

style  of 437 

works  of 434-437 

Didactic  verse 221,  267,  268 

DonJu'an 356-358 

Donne  (don),  John,    186, 187,  195,  211,  486 
Don  Quitfote  (Span. pron. don  ke-ho'ta)  276 

Doug'las,  Ga'wain 93 

Dowden,  Edward,  quoted  .      174,  398,  436 

Drake,  Sir  Francis 104 

Drama,  English  .      113-115,  134-183, 190- 
193,  213,  218,  273,  333,  355,  454-458,  472 

actors  in  early 136-138 

and  the  Unities 143,  146 

authorities  on 182, 183 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  .    .    191,  192 

Browning's 454-458 

Byron's 3?5,  356 

comic  element  in  ...      138, 139, 160 

Dryden's 218,  221 

interludes 141,  142 

Jonson's 169-173 

Marlowe's 143,  144-148 

Miracle  plays 134-139 

Moralities 139-141 

required  readings  in  ....     179-181 
Shakespeare's.    See  Shakespeare. 

Tennyson's 472 

Webster's 190,  101 

Dr.  Faustus      .    .      144,  145,  146,  147, 180 

Drummoiid,  William 486 

Dryden,  John.    .    .  82,  134,  168,  170,  214, 
215,  217-223,  229. 

life  of 217-219 

required  readings  in 230 

works  of 219-223 

Duchess  of  Mal'fi 190,191 

Dun-bar1,  William 93 

Dun'ci-ad 267 

Earle,  John,  quoted 26 

Ec-cle-fe«b'an 407,  409 

Edgeworth,  Maria 488 

Ed'in-burgh  (-bur-ro)    .    .    .  319,  325,  408 
Eighteenth  century,  first  forty  years 

of 232-261 

second  forty  years  of      ...     262-304 

El-en-e 32 

Eliot,  George   .    .  114,  279,  385,  389,  397, 
398,  435,  444-450,  478. 

her  message  to  the  age 449 

life  of 444-447 

required  readings  in 482 

worksof 447-450 

Elizabeth,  Queen 106,  106 


494 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Elizabethan  literature  ....     103-183 

and  the  novel 276,  277 

authorities  on 181-183 

compared  with  that  of  the  Roman- 
tic age    .    .    .     306,  310.  321,  322,  379 
compared  with   that  of    the   Vic- 
torian age 386,  398 

general  characteristics,  103-115, 176-178 
required  readings  in  ....     178-181 

Elliott,  Ebenezer 489 

El'stow 223 

English  Humorists  of  the  Eighteenth 

Century.  ....  286,441,442,482 
English  language  .  .  .  48-57,  63,  83,  84 
English  literature,  comparative  rank 

of 11,  103,  109, 165 

Ep-i-tha-la'mi-on  (Spenser's)      .    .    .127 

Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy 220 

Essay  on  Criticism    .......  254 

Essay  on  Man 257 

Esvays  in  Criticism 428 

Essays  of  E'li-a 312 

Eth'er-gjie,  George 487 

Ethical  purpose  in  literature,  396,  409, 
410,  417,  418,  421,  435,  449,  458,  459, 
460,  466,  470,  478. 

Eu'phu-es  (ez) 117, 178 

Ev'e-lyn,  John 486 

Ece  of  St.  Agnes  ....      370,371  382 

Every  Man  in  his  Humor 171 

Evolution,  influence  of  theory  of,  388-397, 
474,  477. 

Excursion 343 

Ex'e-ter  Book    ....    18,  20,  21,  22,  44 
Exeter  Cathedral 18 

Fa'e-rie  Queene     .    .    .   128,  129,  131,  178 
Fallow  period  of  English  literature    .    54 

FaVa-day.  Michael 489 

Far'qnhar,  George 487 

Farringford 463 

Fergusson,  Robert 4S8 

Fielding,  Henry,  283-285,  286,  287,  301,  303 

Field  Place 361 

Fight  at  Finnsburg 34 

Figures  of  rhetoric   ....  36,  291,  415 

Fitz-ggr'ald,  Edward 490 

Fletcher,  Giles 486 

Fletcher,  John      ....      191, 192,  210 

Fletcher,  Phineas 486 

Ford,  John 191,  203 

Fort  Clt-viffe-ra 418,  421,  422 

Forces-cue,  Sir  John 485 

Fortunes  of  Men 22,  44 

Francis,  Sir  Philip 487 


PAGE 

Freedom  of  thought 89, 106 

Freeman,  Edward  Augustus  ....  489 

quoted 290 

French  element  in  English    .    .    .49,  52, 

53,  54,  61,  84. 
French  influence  .    .    .  215,  216,  235,  237 

French  prose 237,  238 

French  Revolution  (Carlyle's)    .    .    ,  411 
French  Revolution,  effect  of,  on  liter- 
ature,   309,  310,  337,  361,  367,  379,  396 

Froude,  James  Anthony 489 

Fuller,  Thomas 188,  209,  211 

Furness's  Va-ri-o'rum  Shakespeare  .  180 
Fur'ni-vall,  F.  J.,  quoted 157 

Gad's  Hill 433 

Gammer  Ourton's  Needle 142 

Gardiner,  Samuel  Rawson  ....  489 
GaVrick,  David  ....  266,  293,  297 
Gas-coigne'  (-coin'),  George  .  .  Ill,  485 

Gas'Uell,  Elizabeth  C 490 

Gd'wayne  and  the  Green  Knight    .    .  275 

Gay,  John 487 

Gender  of  Anglo-Saxon 50 

Genesis  (Caed inon's) 28,23 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth 57 

<5ib'l>on,  Edward    .    289-291,  297,  303,  404 

Giles,  Henry,  quoted 163 

Gleeman       19,  20 

songs  of 20-26 

Godwin,   William 488 

Goethe's  (ge'teh'z)  estimate  of  Shake- 
speare     165 

Goldsmith,  Oliver     .    .  161,  272,  274,  287, 
295,  297,  301,  302,  303. 

Goijbo-due 142,  146,  180 

GSss  -,  Edmund,  quoted    .      271,  287,  402 

GSs'son,  Stephen 485 

Gower,  John 69,  70,  86 

Gras'mere 338,  339,  340,  374 

Gray,  Thomas,  267,  269,  270-27:',  301,  302 

Great  Berk'hamp-stead 314 

Green,  John  Richard 489 

Greene,  Robert     ...  112,  276,  392,  486 

Griff 445 

Grote,  George 489 

Growth,  theory  of  ....  143,  389,  449 
Gulliver's  Travels,  65,  242,  243,  259, 260, 279 
Guy  Mannering 831 

Hak'luyt,  Richard .488 

HaTlam,  Henry 488 

quoted 123,  165 

Hamilton,  Sir  William  ....  385,489 
Hamilton,  William,  of  Eangour  .  .  236 


INDEX 


495 


PAGE 
Hamlet,  14,  48,  109,  157,  158,  164,  166, 180 

Handlyng  Sunne 63,  85 

Hardy,  Thomas ISO 

Hawes,  Stephen    . 485 

Hazlitt,  William 488 

Heart  of  Midlothian,  The 331 

Hel'ne,  Heinrich,  quoted  .....    23 

Hell  Mouth 137 

Hem'ans,  Felicia 489 

Henry  Esmond, 441 

Henrysou,  Robert 92 

Herbert,  George 486 

Heroen  and  Hero  Worship     ....  413 
Herrick,  Robert    ....      194, 195,  211 

Hes-pifr'i-des  (-dez) 194 

Hey'wood,  John 141, 142 

Heywood,  Thomas 486 

Hipswell 65 

Historical  novel    .    .    .   286,  330,  333,  380 
History,  English.     See  list  at  end  of 
each  chapter. 

History  of  Fricdrich  II. 414 

Hobbes,  The  mas 187,  211 

Hogg,  James 488 

Hol'ing-hed's  Chronicles     .      159,  183,  485 
Homer,  Chapman's    ....     307  (note) 

Pope's 256 

Hood,  Thomas 489 

Hooker,  Richard 118, 119 

Hor'ace,  influence  of 235 

Horton 197 

Hous  of  Fame 72,  74 

Hu'di-brns  (bras) 213,  230 

Hume,  David 288,  289,  303 

Humphrey  Clinker 286 

Hunt,  Leigh  (le) 488 

Huxley,  Thomas   ....      S85,  387,  477 

on  Paradise  Lost 208 

Hy-pe'ri-on 371 

Idler,  The 295,  300 

Idylls  of  the  King     ....  59,  470,  471 

II  Pen-ye-ro'so 200,  211,  270 

Imagination  in  literature  .    .    .  110,  233, 
264,  306,  807,  31)1,  392. 

Induction  (Sackville's) 116 

Inflections,  loss  of 49,  60 

In  gs-low,  Jean 490 

In  Me-mo  n-nm  .    .     392,  393,  3'J4,  395, 
468,  469,  473,  475,  482. 

Interlude 141 

authorities  on  the 18.',  183 

readings  in  the 179 

Italian  influence 74,  99,  105 

I'van-hoe  .  330 


PAGE 

James  I.  of  Scotland 485 

JftKrow 39 

Jeffrey,  Francis 488 

Jew  of  Malta 144,  146,  147 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel     .    .    161,  172,  252, 

271*  293-300,  308. 

his  opinion  of  Shakespeare     .    180,  298 
his  opinion  of  Milton's  Lycidan  .    .  298 

life  of 293  295 

required  readings  in  .....  303 
works  of   ........     294-300 

Johnson,  Hester 240 

Jonson,  Ben    .  166-173,  186,  187,  195,  211 

life  of 166-169 

required  readings  in 181 

works  of 169-173 

Joseph  Andrews 284,  285 

Ju-li-an'a -32 

Juuius 28 

Keats,  John    ....  134,  307,  312,  340, 
364,  368-373,  379,  391. 

and  the  Elizabethans 373 

compared  with  Wordsworth,  Cole- 
ridge, Byron,  and  Shelley    .    .    .  371 

life  of 368,  369 

required  readings  in 382 

works  of 369-373 

Ke'ble,  John .  489 

Ken'il-worth 148 

Kenil  worth 330 

King  Lear,  55,  58,  109,   157,  158,  159,  162 

Kingsley,  Charles 490 

Kipling,  Rudyard 490 

Knightes  Tale       79,  80,  86 

Knowles,  James  Sheridan      ....  488 
Kyd,  Thomas 485 

Lady  of  the  Lake 328 

Lake  District 338,  347 

Lake  Poets 313 

Laleham       424 

L' Allegro  (lal-la'gro)     ....    200,  211 
Lamb,  Charlts       ....      306,  312,  383 

La'mi-a 370 

Landor,  Walter  Savage      ...    .    313,  314  ' 
Laiig'land,  William       ....  67-69,  86 

Liit'i-mer,  Hugh 485 

Latin  element  in  English       .     .  49,  53,  84 

La'ya-nion 58 

Lear.    See  King  Lear. 

Lecky,  William  Edward  Hartpole.    .  489 

Legende  of  Good  Women    .     .    .    .   73, 74 

Le'ver,  Charles 490 

LeWes  (-Is) ,  George  Henry ,  298, 445, 446, 489 


496 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Lichfleld      .    .    , 293 

Lindsay,  Sir  David 485 

Liiigard,  John 488 

Literary  Club 297 

Liven  of  the  Poets     ....  297,  300,  303 

Locke,  John 214,  215,  230 

Lockhart,  John  Gibson 488 

Lockxley  Hall  .  .  397,  466,  474,  475,  482 
Lodge,  Thomas  .  .  .  112,  276,  302,  485 

London 294 

Lounsbury,  T.  E.,  quoted  .    .    .    .  66,  83 

Love'lace,  Richard 193,  211 

Low'ell,  James  Russell,  quoted,  81,  83,  255 
Lyfi-das.  .  .  .  200,  211,  298,  382,  469 

Lydgate,  John 485 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles 489 

Lyl'y,  John  .    .    .     117, 118,  178,  276,  485 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  399-406, 478 
his  conception  of  history   .    .    403,  404 

life  of 399-402 

on  Dr.  Johnson 295,  296 

required  readings  in 480 

works  of 402-406 

Macbeth,  55,  109,  167,  158,  164,  180, 192, 234 

MacFlecknoe 221 

Macpherson,  James 267 

Maine,  Sir  Henry 489 

Mak,  in  Play  of  the  Shepherds  .  138,  139 
Mal'o-ry,  Sir  Thomas  .  .  90-92,  101,  470 
MSl'thus,  Thomas  Robert .  .  .  311,  488 
Man,  poetry  of.  .  309,310,322,342,379 

Manchester 373 

Mandeville's  Travels     .    .    .    .  64,  65, 86 

Manfred 365,  356 

Manning,  Robert 63,  64 

Marlowe,  Christopher  ....     144-148 
and  the  Elizabethan  age,     110,  144,  145 

quoted Ill,  113,  114 

required  readings  in 180 

works  of 144-148 

Marmion 328, 329 

Marston,  John 112,  486 

Marvell,  Andrew 486 

Masques       168,  200 

ilas'sin-ger,  Philip 486 

Masson,  David,  quoted      .    .    .    197,  376 

Maud 4«7,  468 

Melancholy,  liternture  of  ....  270 
Merchant  of  Venice  .  .  157, 158,  159, 180 

Mer'e-dith,  George 490 

Michael 308, 342 

Micldleton,  Thomas 480 

Midsummer  Mights  Dream  ...  38, 160 
Mill,  James 311,488 


PAGE 

Mill,  John  Stuart 489 

MM  on  the  Flosg 447 

Milman,  Henry  Hart 489 

Milston 245 

Milton,  John  .  72,134,184,186,187,196- 
209,  210,  215,  220,  233,  266,  270,  298,  306 

life  of 196-200 

required  readings  in 211 

works  of 198-209 

Miracle  plays  (see  alsoDrama),114,134-lS9 

actors  in 136-138 

authorities  on 182,  183 

comic  element  in 138,  139 

required  readings  in 179 

subject  matter  of 135 

Mirror  for  Magistrates 116 

Mitford,  Mary  Russell 488 

Modern  Painters 419-421,  481 

Moliere  (mo-le-eV) 216 

Mon'ta-gu,  Lady  Mary  Wortley     .    .  487 

Moore,  Thomas 488 

Moor  Park 239 

Moralities  (sec  also  Drama),  114, 139, 140 

authorities  on 182,  183 

required  readings  in 179 

More,  Sir  Thomas 485 

Morris,  William 92,  490 

Morte  (11161  t)d' Arthur.    .   90,91,92,470 

My  Last  Duchess 455 

Mystery  plays 134-139 

Na'pi-er,  Sir  William 488 

Nash,  Thomas 276,  302 

Nature,  poetry  of,  25,  33,  62,  63,  82,  83,  92f 
93,  201,  205,  214,  215,  223,  229,  235,  236 
299, 308,  309, 316,  323,  324,  329, 340,  366, 
372,  472-474. 

Nebular  hypothesis 388 

Nether-Stow'ey 846,  347 

Newcomts,  The 441 

Newman,  John  Henry  ....    385,  489 

Newstead  Abbey 354 

New  World,  effect  of  exploration  of  .  104, 
Noah's  Flood,  Flay  of  .    .    .    .    138,  179 

Norman  Conquest 38,  47 

effect  of,  on  language    ....    47-66 

Norse  mythology 13,  14,  269 

North,  Sir  Thomas 485 

Nove!,  development  of  the,  274-287,  301, 
302,  303,  330,  331,  435,  440,  441,  449. 

authorities  on  the 304 

compared  with  development  of  the 

Elizabethan  drama  .  .  .  113,  114 
in  mediaeval  times  ....  274,  275 
in  the  sixteenth  century  ....  27* 


INDEX 


497 


PAGE 

Novel,  development  of  the,  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  277-287 

in  the  nineteenth  century  .    .    330.  333. 
336,  380,  386,  435,  436,  443,  449,  478. 

No'vum  Or'ga-num 124 

Nut-Broim  Maid 94, 101 

O'b6r-am'ni6r-gau  (-gou)  PassionPlay,  135 

Oc'cleve,  Thomas 485 

Ode  to  the  West  Wind    ....    364,  366 

Old  Mortality       330 

Ol'i-phant,  T.  L.,  quoted 64 

Oliver  Twist 434 

Olney 315 

Origin  of  Species 387 

Orm's  Or'mu-lum 59 

0-ro'si-us  (Alfred's) 40 

Ossian  (fish'an)      .     .    .  267,  268,  301,  302 

Ot'ter-y  St.  Mary 345 

Otway,  Thomas 487 

Owl  and  Nightingale 62 

Oxford 245,  361,  417,  424 

Palace  of  Art 466,  473,  482 

Paley,  William 488 

Pam'e-la 281,  284 

Paradise  Lost,  23,  30,  184, 200-208,  211,  215 
Paradise  of  Dainty  Devices   .    .    .    .116 

Paradise  Regained 203 

Parallelism 36,  37 

Parlement  of  Foules 74,  85 

Par'nell,  Thomas 487 

Passing  of  Arthur    .    .     59,101,476,482 

Paston  Letters 485 

Pa'ter,  Walter 490 

Pattison,  Mark,  quoted 201 

Peacock,  Thomas  Love 488 

Peele,  George  ....    105,  111,  112,  483 

Pgp'ys,  Samuel 486 

Percy,  Thomas      .    .    .   269,  301,  302,  325 

Perkin  Warbeck 191 

Phi-las'ter 191 

Philosophical  prose,  187,  288,  289,  303,  Sll 

Phoenix 33,  37,  45 

Picaresque  novel,  the    .   276,  277,  279,  286 
Pickwick  Papers  ....      433,  434,  481 

Pier*  Plowman 67-69,  85 

Pilgrim's  Progress 225-229 

Pip'pd  Passes 457,  458,  479 

Pitt,  William 262 

Pope,  Alexander  .     .    234,  235,  236,  237, 
248,  252-258,  294,  316,  321,  831. 

life  of 252-254 

required  readings  in  .    .    .    .    260,  261 
works  of 254-258 


PAGE 

Porter,  Jane 488 

Portsmouth 430 

Praed,  Winthrop 489 

Prefixes,  loss  of 51 

Prelude  (Wordsworth's)    .    .     .    336,  342 
Pride  and  Prejudice     ....    333,  334 

Princess,  The 467,  473,  4V  7 

Prior,  Matthew 48/ 

Proctor,  Bryan  W 489 

Prologue  (Chaucer's)     ....  77-79,  86 

Pro-me'theus  Unbound .    .      363,  365,  367 

Prose,  development  of,  117,  118,  187,  211, 

219,  220,  230,  237,  312,  313,  385,  386,  430 

Puritan  age 184-212 

authorities  on  the  ....  211,  212 
compared  with  Elizabethan  age,  184-186 
general  characteristics,  184-187,  209,  210 
required  readings  in  ....  210,  211 

Puritan  ideals 186,  226 

Puf  ten-ham,  George 485 

Quantock  Hills 347 

Rabbi  Ben  Ezra    .    .    .  389,  459,  461,  482 

Radcliffe,  Ann 488 

Ra'lelgh,  Sir  Walter.    .    .      108,128,188 
Ralph  Royster  Doyster  ....    142,  180 

Rambler,  The 295,  301 

Ramsay,  Allan 487 

Rape  of  the  Lock  .    .    .    .      255,256,260 

Ras'se-las 295 

Reade,  Charles 490 

Readings.    See  end  of  each  chapter. 

Reformation 97,  103,  106 

Re-lig'i-o  Ld'i-cl 221,  230 

Religion,  effect  of,  on  literature,    89,  186, 

395,  458,  459,  469,  470,  479,  480. 
Rel'lques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  269, 

301,  302,  32.%  328. 

Renaissance,  the 96,  103 

Required  readings.    See  end  of  each 

chapter. 

Restoration,  age  of 213-231 

authorities  on 231 

drama  of 213 

general  characteristics,  213-217,  229,  230 

morals  of 213 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua    ....    297,  487 

Ri-car'do,  David 488 

Richardson,  Samuel      .    .      280-283,  284, 

286,  2S7,  302. 

Ring  and  the  Bonk 456 

Robert  of  Brunne 63,  64 

Robertson,  William 487 

Robin  Hood  ballads  .  .    94 


498 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Robinson  Crusoe  ....      237,  277,  278 
.Romances,  early  ....       274-276,  £02 

Re-manes',  George  J 489 

Romanticism 264-274 

Romanticism,  age  of     ....     306-384 

authorities  on    .    .    .    .    .    .    383, 384 

general  characteristics,  305-313,  379,  380 

required  readings 380-383 

Rom'u-la 448 

Rus-set'ti,  Christina 430 

Rossetti,  Dante  Gabriel     ......  490 

Rothley  Temple 401 

Ruskin,  John,     395,  397,  406,  416-423,  478 

art  criticism  of 419-421 

compared  with  Carlyle  .      416,  422,  423 

life  of 416-419 

required  readings  in 481 

works  of 419-423 

Sackville,  Thomas     .    .   116,  142,  146,  178 

St.  Albana 64 

Saintsbuiy,  George,  quoted   .     .     107,  156 

Samson  Ag-o-nitftes  (-tez) 204 

Sar'ior  Re-sar'ttts      3£5,  407,  403,  4iO,  414 

Satire 171,  213,  220,  236,  259 

Saul 896 

Saxon.    See  Anglo-Saxon. 

Scholemanter,  The 105 

Schoolmen,  the 90,  125 

Science,  influence  of,  215,  387-399,  474,  477 

Scop 19-23 

songs  of  the 20-26,  43,  44 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  114,  312,  313,  325-333, 379 

life  of 325-328 

quoted 244, 336 

required  readings  in E81 

works  of 328-333 

Scotq^i  poetry    .    .    92,  93,  101,  102,  321 

Seafarer 21,  35,  44 

Seasons,  The 236 

Sentence,  shortening  of 220 

Shadwell,  Thomas 221,  487 

8'iairp,  J.  C.,  quoted      ....    3'-0,  351 

Shakespeare,  William,  11,  38,43,48,65,  61, 

95,  103,  113,  114,  148-166, 167,  168,  170, 

171,  J73, 175,  177,  183, 190, 191, 192,  205, 

226,  266,  298,  323,  324,  351,  393. 

authoiities  on 183 

early  education  of      ....     148-152 
general  characteristics  of  .    .     160-166 

life  of 148-155 

quoted  .    11.  21,  48,  65,  1S»2,  214,  233,  234 
required  readings  in  .    .      157,  180, 181 

Saxon  vocabulary  of 64,  55 

works  of    .  .    155-166 


PAGE 
Sharpham  Park 283 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe  (blsh),  92,  134,  307, 

312,  338,  361-368,  379,  477. 
compared  with  Wordsworth,  Cole- 
ridge, and  Byron    ....     367, 368 

life  of 361-363 

required  readings  in 3b2 

works  of 363-368 

Shepherd's  Calendar 127 

Shepherds,  Play  oj  tlus  .  .  1S8,  139,  179 
SheVi-dau,  Richard  Brinsley  .  .  .  487 

Shirley,  Jam<  s 486 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip      .     .  108,  118,  119, 178, 
27o,  302. 

Silas  Marner 279,  447,  448 

Silent  Woman,  The  .  .  .  169,  170,  181 
Sir  Roger  de  Co  e'er  ley  Papers,  249,  260,  260 

Skelton,  John 486 

Smith,  Adam 487 

Smith,  Sydney •    .    .  488 

Smith's  (L.  T.)  York  Plays  .  .  .  .  138 
Smollett,  To-bi'as  .  .  2£5,  286,  cOl,  303 
Social  ideals  .  .  309,  310,  322,  396,  421 

Sohrab  and  Rustum 427 

Som'erg-by 462 

Sonnet,  the       99,  155,  156 

South,  Robert 486 

Southey,  Robert  .    .     .312,  313,  346,  357 

South  wark  (sfifh'ai-K) 77 

Spectator,  The,    247,  249-251,  277,  295,  302 
Spencer,  Herbert ....      385,  387,  477 
Spenser,  Edmund .    .    .  115, 125-134,  186, 
187,  210,  266. 

life  of 126-128 

required  readings  in 178 

works  of 129-134 

Steele,  Richard     .      £37,  244,  2,8-250,  302 

Stella 240 

Stephen,  Leslie 490 

quoted       .     .     .     254,  £68,  279,  298,  377 
Sterne,  Laurence  .    .    .  285,  286,  301,  303 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis 490 

Steventon     333 

Still,  John 142 

Stokt;  Po'gf  8 :     .  271 

Stones  uf  Venice 419,  481 

Stdw,  John 485 

Stratford-on-Avoii     .     .     .     148,  150,   151 

Stnbbs,  William 489 

Suckling,  Sir  John 193,  211 

'•  Sum  r  is  i  cnmen  " 63 

Summaries.      See  last  section  of  text  in 
each  chapter. 

Surrey,  Earl  of 99,  102 

•Sweet,  Henry,  quoted 61 


INDEX 


499 


PAGE 
Swift,  Jonathan,  233,  237,  238-245, 279, 385 

life  of 238-241 

required  readings  in 260 

works  of 241-245 

Swinburne,  Al'ger-noa  Charles,  i,2,  393,  490 

quoted,  22,  270,  273,  305,  343,  349, 359,  394 

Symonds,  John  Addiugton     ....  490 

quoted 112,  147,  367 

Tab'ardlnn 77 

Taine,  H.  A.,  quoted    .    .      110,  244,  250 

Tale  of  a  Tub 241,260 

Tamrbur-laine  .    .    110,  113,  144,  148,  210 

Tain  o'  Shanter 324,  3SC 

Task,  The 3!6,  380 

Taller,  The  .  .  .  244,  247,  248,  -249,  295 
Taylor,  Jeremy  ....  183,  209,  211 
Temple,  Sir  William  .  .  238,  239,  486 

Ten  Brink,  quoted 23,  67 

Tennyson,  Alfred  .  14,  34,  i9,  74,  92, 
340,  S85,  386,  388,  390,  392,  393,  394, 
395,  396,  S97,  399,  462-477,  478,  479. 

life  of 462-464 

required  readings  in 482 

works  of 461-477 

Thackeray,  William  Makepeace,  114,  160, 
240,  279,  385,  389,  398,  437-444,  478. 

life  of 437-140 

required  readings  in 482 

works  Of 440-444 

Theaters,  early  English,  115,  153,  173-176 
contemporary  drawing  of  ....  174 

Thomson,  James 236 

Tillotson,  John 486 

To  a  Nightingale 371,  382 

Tom.  Jones 284 

Tour-neur',  Cyril 486 

Towne'ley  Miracle  plays   .    .     .    13.">,  179 

Trintram  Shindy 285 

Trollope,  Anthony 490 

Tros'saehs 328 

Turner,  J.  M.  W 419,  420 

Twickenham 253 

Tyndale,  William  ....  97-99,  101 
Tyiidall,  John,  385,  387,  338,  391,  3.)2,  477 

U'dall,  Nicholas 142 

Uli/xges 466,  467 

Unities,  dramatic ....  143,  146,  172 
Utilitarianism 311 

VSl-haT 13,33 

Van-brush'  (-broo'),  John      ....  487 

Vanity  Fair 279,  441 

Vemts  and  A-dO'nia 155 


PAGE 
Vercelli  (vgr-chel'le)  Boole     ....    18 

Vicar  of  Wakejield 287 

Vice  and  Fool  of  Eaily  Drama,  140,  176 

Victorian  age 385-184 

authorities  on 483,  484 

compared   with  Elizabethan  age,  386, 

387,  393. 

general  characteristics,  385-393,  477-479 
required  readings  in  .    .    .    .     480-482 

variety  of  work  of 386 

Vocabulary,  percentage  of  Saxou  in,  64, 
65,  C4,  291. 

Vol-po'ne 169,  171,  181 

Voltaire's  criticism  of  Shakespeare   .  236 

Wagner's  trilogy 269 

Waller,  Edmund  ....      216,  217,  486 
Walpole,  Horace  ....      268,  263,  302 

Walpole,  Robert 262 

Walton,  Izaak  ....   188,  189,  203,  211 

War'bur-ton,  William 487 

Ward,  Mrs.  Humphry 490 

Warner,  William 485 

Wars  of  the  Roses 90 

Warton,  Thomas 487 

Watson,  William 490 

Watts,  Isaac 487 

Waverley  Novels 326,  329-332 

Webster,  Dnniel 415 

Webster,  John 190,  191,  209 

Wesley,  Charles 488 

Wesley,  John 263 

Westminster  Abbey,  Frontispiece,  73, 128, 
169,  218,  248,  '267,  296,  464. 

Weston 316 

Whitby 27,88 

White,  Gilbert 487 

White'fleld  (whit'-),  George  ....  263 

Widsid  (wid-sith) 20,  43 

Wilson,  John 488 

Wither,  George 486 

Wolfe,  General 262 

Wordsworth,  William,  134,  209,  '215,  306, 

307,  338,  S09,  310,  329,  336-344,  477. 
compared  with  Tennyson    .    .    341,344 

life  of .    .    335-340 

requ'red  readings  in  .    .  881 

works  of 310-344 

Wy'att,  Sir  Thomas 99,  101 

Wycli'er-lcy,  William 487 

Wyc'liffe,  John 65-67,  89 

Yarmouth 485 

York  Miracle  plays  ...      135,  137,  133 
Young,  Edward 488 


LIC  SOUTHERN  REGION 

001  117  166     7 


m 


